Dustin Hopkins Is Providing A Long-Awaited Calm In Cleveland
Photo Credit: Scott Galvin-USA TODAY Sports
In a perfect world, a fanbase wouldn’t have to waste a single breath arguing over who is going to kick field goals.
Ever.
The past several years in Cleveland have certainly not been perfect.
Too often the balance between winning and losing, as of late, has been decided by the unreliable foot of some guy the Browns’ GM plucked from a dying fruit tree. It’s been painstaking and at times flabbergasting
Not that we’re not used to flabbergasting. A lot of us came of age at a time when at the end of each Sunday the Browns would leave us slack-jawed, saying, “I had no idea you could lose like that.”
But we had one hero. One single thing that we knew every Sunday we could hold on to. It was the thought that if we could get within three points, and if we could get into field goal range, Phil Dawson would get us there.
It didn’t happen enough, but when it did it was glorious.
With Phil, we never worried. It’s not that we would forget about Phil, it was that we didn’t have to think about him. If you needed him, he had you. You never spent the first three and a half quarters of an important game hoping it didn’t come down to a field goal.
When he departed for San Francisco in 2012, a turbulent journey began, an 11-year kicking carousel that included veterans, no names, and draft picks.
On Sunday, Phil Dawson returned. Prior to the matchup between his two former teams, the legendary kicker took to the field to smash the ceremonial guitar.
And then after a decade plus of struggles, Cleveland’s all-time leading scorer watched as the current Browns kicker earned special teams player of the week. Against the 49ers, Dustin Hopkins didn’t just hit the game-winner, he nailed field goals from 29, 42, 46, and 50 yards. The 50-yard kick marked a significant milestone, as it was his fourth consecutive game with a field goal of 50-plus yards, establishing the longest streak in Browns history.
As Hopkins kicked the Browns to the lead and then watched his San Francisco counterpart miss, it was hard as a fan to not wonder how all this would have gone with Cade York. The biggest upset in the NFL this year relied so heavily on the steady foot of Hopkins it was near impossible to not shudder at the thought of the Browns having not made the preseason move to go get him.
Hopkins has been stellar all year. This marks his fifth career Special Teams Player of the Week award in his career, and the performance put him at 12/14 field goal attempts on the year, boasting an impressive 85.7% accuracy rate.
He might not be Phil Dawson, but he’s the first Browns kicker since Dawson who can calm our worries.
The big win has reinstalled a jolt of energy in the Browns organization and fanbase. Preseason hype was drowned out by Nick Chubb‘s injury and a subpar offensive start. But if Kevin’s Stefanski can continue to call games like he did Sunday and if he and Watson can get on the same page, this defense is good enough to take this team a long way. And when you go a long way playing defensive football, you’re going to wind up with some very important kicks. With Hopkins perhaps that, like it always was with Dawson, will be a good thing.
The years of instability and frustration have given way to a newfound sense of reliability and confidence. Fans should take a moment to appreciate the significance of that reliability and confidence. They should pause and enjoy having a serviceable kicker like Hopkins and not take it for granted. We now know how good we had it with Dawson. The struggles of the past should make Hopkins’ presence all the more valuable. He is undoubtedly an unsung hero whose contributions should be celebrated by Browns fans as an integral part of the team’s success.
So as the league honors him with Special Teams Player of the week, let’s celebrate our kicker the best way we can by enjoying that we may never have to really think about him.
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