Five most important free-agent Redskins of the 2021 offseason

Yeah, I know. A kicker isn’t the most exciting position. But the importance of having a solid kicker in the NFL cannot be understated.

And Dustin Hopkins is just that. A solid kicker.

After struggling at times early in his career, particularly from distance, Hopkins has improved throughout the past two seasons. He had the best year of his career in 2018 when he made 26 of 29 field goals including 4 of 5 from 50-plus yards. In 2019, he continued to fare well and logged 25 makes on 30 attempts (3 of 4 from 50-plus).

The most notable stat for Hopkins is his improvement from 50 and beyond. In the first three seasons of his career, he was a paltry 5 of 13 from that range. But the past two years, he has gone 7 of 9. That’s a marked improvement that is above the league average from that distance. Provided that he can continue his success in that range this upcoming year, the Redskins will want to keep him around.

There are a lot of positives for Hopkins. He’s improving. He’ll only turn 30 in October. And he has made at least 80 percent of his field goals in each of his five seasons with the Redskins. That’s worth keeping around.

The only thing holding back Hopkins on this list is the lack of positional value in kickers. But when given the choice between trusting an unproven rookie or going with a proven veteran option, most teams will trust the veteran. Thus, Hopkins’ pending free agency will be important for the Redskins, unless he badly regresses and the team decides to look for an upgrade.