Washington Football Team should’ve sat Dustin Hopkins against Lions

The Washington Football Team should’ve sat Dustin Hopkins against the Lions.

The Washington Football Team came very close to beating the Detroit Lions on Sunday. Despite being down by as many as 21 points, the team was able to tie the game with under a minute remaining before allowing the Lions to get into field goal range thanks to a combination of poor coverage and a bad penalty.

Ultimately, the 3-point loss was a painful one for Washington fans, and there are many plays and decisions that decided the game. But there is one decision that sticks out as a decidedly iffy one for this contest.

Dustin Hopkins played for Washington in Week 10 despite nursing a groin injury for much of the week in practice. He was deemed questionable for the contest and logged only a limited practice on Friday after missing all of the team’s other sessions with the injury. And against the Lions, it was clear that he was a bit off.

Early in the game, Hopkins missed a 43-yard field goal badly. The ball flew wide right and immediately, you could tell that the ball wasn’t going through the goalposts. That represented an opportunity to cut the game to a one-score deficit. It also was a field goal that NFL kickers make 77 percent of the time.

That miss ended up costing Washington dearly considering that the team lost by three points on Sunday. Of course, that play alone isn’t the only reason they lost, and it was the only kick that Hopkins missed, but it was certainly a point of frustration for Washington fans.

Even more frustrating was what Ron Rivera said about Hopkins on Monday. When asked by reporters about whether or not the team would consider a kicking change, this is what Rivera said, per ESPN’s John Keim.

This makes sense as something the team would discuss as Hopkins is in the midst of the worst season of his career. Including Sunday’s game, he has made a career-low 70.6 percent of his field goals including a miserable 6-for-11 from 40+ yards.

With that said though, it makes no sense that Washington decided to play Hopkins on Sunday. If they are discussing replacing him, they should’ve given someone else a shot against the Lions. After all, Hopkins dealing with an injury that sidelined him for most of the week and clearly had some sort of an impact on him, even if it was minor.

Even if Washington is confident in him, the decision is still a questionable one. The team has Kaare Vedvik on the practice squad, so they could’ve promoted him to the gameday roster which would’ve given Hopkins a chance to rest and get fully healthy and would’ve given Vedvik a chance to prove himself.

Vedvik has a big leg and once made a 55-yard field goal in the preseason for the Ravens in 2019, so if he had performed well, Washington could’ve decided to move on from Hopkins if they wanted to. If not, they would at least know that they have a competent kicker available on their practice squad should they need him or should Hopkins’ struggles persist.

Hindsight is always 20/20, so perhaps I’m not talking about sitting Hopkins if he makes every kick he had on Sunday. And Hopkins deserves credit for absolutely nailing a game-tying field goal late in regulation. Aside from that one bad miss, he was fine.

Nonetheless, this move didn’t make a ton of sense for Washington. There was reason for concern about Hopkins’ performance already and adding an injury to the equation made it riskier to play him.

Maybe Vedvik doesn’t make the kick or he misses another crucial kick at some point during the game. But the decision to stick with Hopkins at less than 100 percent surely is one that should be questioned.