Dustin Hopkins out to prove disastrous season was aberration

The offseason provided a welcome break for Dustin Hopkins.The veteran kicker ended 2024 in a nasty slump, with things getting so bad the team signed another kicker and coach Kevin Stefanski gave Hopkins a game off. Hopkins went 3-for-9 on field goals from Weeks 9-14 and finished the year 18-for-27 (66.7 percent) on field goals and 17-for-20 on extra points."With any player, it's a new season," special teams coordinator Bubba Ventrone said last week during organized team activities. "Everything that you've done in the past, obviously those things contribute and matter, but we're clean slate."I feel like he's in a good space mentally. I think that he has hit the ball well in the spring to this point. Had a nice day yesterday and we're just gonna keep working it like we have and understand that it's a process and we're gonna get to where we're going."Hopkins, 34, will be the only kicker at mandatory minicamp Tuesday through Thursday. He insisted toward the end of last season he wanted to keep kicking and work himself out of the struggles."I'm not saying that he wasn't in a good space mentally," Ventrone said. "But when you're having that many missed kicks and the results aren't coming and you're working, you're putting in the time and effort, you can be a little bit inconsistent there relative to the situation."Sometimes in sports you get in a little bit of a slump. I mean, there's guys that bat over .300 for their whole careers and get into a slump for a while. We're just trying to find our way out of it."The Browns traded for Hopkins right before the 2023 season after Cade York had a poor preseason. Hopkins was fantastic, going 33-for-36 on field goals, including 8-for-8 from 50 yards, as the Browns went 11-6. They wouldn't have made the playoffs without his clutch kicks, particularly from long distance.Despite having a year left on his contract, the Browns gave him a three-year, $15.9 million extension in July 2024. The commitment had to play a role in the team's patience last season."He's been consistent in his entire career. He really has," Ventrone said when asked about the organization's faith. "He had a great year in '23, for whatever reason did not have a great year this past year. And I think that he's put it to bed."His preparation, he's in really good shape. He's lean, he's strong. Really don't see any changes in his kicking mechanics, ball elevation, anything. So I feel like he's in a good spot."Hopkins isn't the only area of the special teams that needs to improve from the 3-14 disaster of 2024. The return and coverage units weren't as consistent as Ventrone would like, but he's optimistic they'll make a jump."I would say we have some carryover from last season. We developed a good amount of young players that contributed for us," he said. "Winston (Reid), Bookie (Nathaniel Watson) guys like that, even guys like Chris Edmonds that are coming back that have done a good job in the spring. And I would just say the buy-in. I feel like with our whole team, not just the kicking game, I feel the players are bought in on making it harder and just working harder."The Browns have consistently come up empty in recent years in their search for an explosive returner. Nyheim Hines was supposed to be the answer last year, but his injured knee didn't heal in time for him to be activated.Veteran DeAndre Carter, 32, was signed as a free agent and is penciled in to return kickoffs and punts. He averaged 9.3 yards on punt returns and 31.9 on kickoffs last year for the Bears."Extremely hard worker, undrafted kid that has a lot of talent and experience," said Ventrone, who coached Carter as a rookie with the Patriots. "He's done a really good job. He's been a combo returner since he's been in the league, had a lot of production."Ventrone said consistency at returner should help the Browns from leaving "too many yards out there" as they did in the last couple of years."He's got gas in the tank," Ventrone said. "If you watch the film from last year, I think that you can see he's got the same type of run style, the same type of mentality that he had when he had production early in his career."The number of kickoff returns throughout the league is expected to increase due to a significant change for the second year of the new kickoff rules. A touchback will go to the 35-yard line rather than the 30, which is designed to promote returns."I think ultimately you're gonna have a lot more returned kicks," Ventrone said. "I feel like we have a much better grasp on how we want to attack that play."The post Dustin Hopkins out to prove disastrous season was aberration first appeared on BrownsZone with Scott Petrak.