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With Browns’ playoff spot secured, rest is best medicine for injured Dustin Hopkins

Nobody among the limping Browns is benefiting more from the team already having clinched a playoff spot than kicker Dustin Hopkins.

Hopkins is still nursing a left hamstring injury and is unlikely to play against the Bengals on Jan. 7 in the regular season finale in Cincinnati. The Browns, 11-5, are locked into the fifth playoff seed, so the outcome of the game will not affect their playoff positioning.

Hopkins was injured Dec. 24 chasing after Cameron Johnson, who returned Hopkins’ kickoff 98 yards for a touchdown. The injury is to his plant leg. Hopkins did not practice last week and did not play on Dec. 28 when the Browns beat the Jets, 37-20, to clinch a playoff spot. Nor did Hopkins practice Jan. 3 or 4.

“Dustin is really like day to day, and we’ll make a decision at the end of the week on what Coach (Kevin Stefanski) and AB (general manager Andrew Berry) think,” special teams coordinator Bubba Ventrone said before practice Jan. 4. “I think there’s always a risk whenever you’re coming back off of a soft tissue injury. I’ve had them in my career. I’m not a kicker, so I guess we’ll have to see how he is. I mean, obviously there’s risk when you’re coming back from any injury.”

Hopkins was acquired from the Los Angeles Chargers on Aug. 28, one day before rosters were cut to 53, for a 2025 seventh-round draft pick. He is 33 of 36 on field goal tries and has kicked four game-winning field goals.

The Browns will play the winner of the AFC South in a wild-card game at that team’s home stadium Jan. 13 or 14. The Jaguars, Texans and Colts are all 9-7, but Jacksonville has the tiebreaker edge on Houston and Indianapolis. The Browns would play the Jaguars if they beat the Titans on Jan. 7. But if Tennessee wins, the Browns would visit the winner of the Jan. 6 game between the Texans and Colts at Indianapolis.

Every game could be tight once the playoffs begin, which is why more rest will benefit Hopkins and the Browns. In retrospect, Ventrone wishes Hopkins had not run after the Texans’ kick returner.

“It never came up, honestly, and I wish it would have come up,” Ventrone said. “I wish I would have got after that one earlier in the season and just communicated better on that if that were ever to have happened.

“Our coverage has been pretty good all year and playing some young guys inside, and it just gets on us fast and we don’t close the crease down enough.  Ideally, you would like to have the kicker not chase it down, especially once it gets outside. Just have him pull off. But playing with effort to finish, and, unfortunately, we get the injury.”

Riley Patterson is expected to be elevated from the practice squad on Jan. 6 to kick against the Bengals. Patterson, signed on Dec. 25, one day after Hopkins was injured, kicked a 33-yard field goal and was 4-for-5 on PAT tries against the Jets.

PFWA Awards

The Cleveland chapter of the Pro Football Writers of America unanimously selected defensive end Myles Garrett as the winner of the Joe Thomas Award, recognizing him as the best player on the Browns roster.

Garrett earlier this week was selected to play in his fifth Pro Bowl. He leads the Browns with 14 sacks.

Left guard Joel Bitonio is the recipient of the Dino Lucarelli  Good Guy Award. The award is given annually to a player for his cooperation with the media and for the way the player carries himself in the community and with his teammates. This marks Bitonio’s fourth time (2017, 2018, 2021 and 2023) winning the award.

BROWNS AT BENGALS

When: 1 p.m., Jan. 7

Where: Paycor Stadium, Cincinnati

Records: Bengals 8-8, Browns 11-5

TV: WOIO; Radio: WKRK-FM 92.3, WNCX-FM 98.5, WKNR-AM 850