Washington Football Team wise to stick with Dustin Hopkins

The heat on longtime Washington Football Team kicker Dustin Hopkins has been turned up to boiling this preseason.

Washington completed its preseason campaign with a blowout 37-3 loss against the Baltimore Ravens on Aug. 28. Despite the loss, Washington achieved the main goal of the preseason: survive the games without racking up major injuries.

Heading into the two-week gap between the preseason and the opener against the Los Angeles Chargers, fans are looking to have their last roster questions answered in the coming days. High on the list? What will happen to Dustin Hopkins, and will a kicker be brought in for competition?

Hopkins’ detractors received more ammunition during the Ravens game. Hopkins missed a 55-yarder early in the game before connecting on a 48-yard field goal later on. The miss is listed as a block on the box score, as the ball failed to get above helmet level at the line of scrimmage.

Should the Washington Football Team bring another kicker in?

The block from 55 yards capped off a disappointing preseason for Hopkins. Entering his seventh season with the Washington Football Team, the former Florida State Seminole made 4-of-7 field goals during the preseason, along with making his only extra-point attempt. For Washington fans, the most eye-opening statistic is Hopkins’ accuracy from deep. In the preseason, Hopkins made just one field goal from beyond 40 yards, out of four attempts.

These struggles have led for some to be vocal about letting Hopkins go, or at the very least bringing in competition for the kicker spot. With the release of former Virginia Tech star Joey Slye over the weekend, the calls for competition have only grown.

Slye represents an interesting option for the Washington Football Team. He has two important stops on his resume that the brass at Ashburn seem to value: he attended college at Virginia Tech and played under head coach Ron Rivera in Carolina in 2019.

Slye’s preseason was not that much different than Hopkins’. Slye made five field goals in eight attempts, including hitting two from beyond 40 yards. However, Slye missed his only field goal attempt in Carolina’s final preseason game and lost the job to new signing Ryan Santoso. He was released on Aug. 28, hours before Washington’s last preseason game.

It is tempting to make a move to acquire Slye here. The potential of the young player not on your team seems to outweigh what fans know about six full seasons of Dustin Hopkins. However, it would be wise for the Washington Football Team to pump the brakes here, stick with Hopkins, and hope he can ride out this slump.

Hopkins and Slye had virtually identical preseasons, so there is no clear glaring advantage in making the switch. Additionally, Slye and Hopkins were within half of a percentage point in accuracy last year (although it is worth noting that both were just barely around 80%).

However, there are two noteworthy reasons to keep Hopkins and have confidence in him breaking this slide. First, he is not too far removed from his 2018 season, where he connected on 89.7% of his field goal attempts. He is also near automatic with extra points, having missed just nine in 178 attempts. By comparison, in his two seasons in Carolina, Slye missed seven extra points in 71 attempts and has a career field goal percentage under 80%.

Second, the special teams group as a whole is going through a transitional phase. The special teams battery is without longtime long snapper Nick Sundberg, who was not re-signed by the team after over a decade of service.

Now without the only regular long snapper Hopkins has had in his pro career, he has to adapt to Washington’s newest long snapper, sixth-round draft pick Camaron Cheeseman. Cheeseman, a University of Michigan graduate and aspiring dentist, has looked decent so far this preseason and has had no notable blunders.

However, after six seasons with Sundberg, it may take more time to build chemistry between Hopkins and Cheeseman. Rivera has previously been vocal about the special teams group and how the group needs to improve heading into the season.

While the special teams stats are concerning heading into September, now is the time to exercise patience and caution. Hopkins is no Justin Tucker, but at his best he can be in the top half of the players at his position. Hopkins has had down periods before, the most memorable of which being a missed 34-yard overtime kick in London in 2016 that sent Washington to a tie with the Bengals.

But Hopkins has also proven clutch, booting a game winner against the Lions in 2019 . Perhaps the highlight of his career came at Florida State, where Hopkins made a 55-yard field goal to defeat Clemson.

All of this is to say that it is too soon to kick Hopkins to the curb for a player who is not that different. For now, it is wise to hope Hopkins and Cheeseman continue to build chemistry and improve their accuracy entering the regular season.

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