After missing both field goal attempts in the Browns’ Week 14 loss to the Steelers, K Dustin Hopkins did not know whether he would get the opportunity to play the following week against the Chiefs.

Hopkins has missed nine of his 25 field goal attempts and four of his eight attempts from 50 or more yards this season. Ahead of the Browns’ Week 15 matchup against the Chiefs, he said he was told he would sit out in favor of K Riley Patterson.

“Before I even knew if I was playing or not, I was determined to turn it into a positive,” Hopkins said. “If I played, great, another opportunity to try to do my best. And if not, I was going to use the week to try to mentally prepare for this week. And I do feel like it was a nice little transition just to reset.”

Hopkins has made 64 percent of his field goal attempts this season and has missed two extra points. His previous season-low field goal percentage came in 2020 with the Commanders, in which he connected on 79.4 percent of field goal attempts.

Last season with the Browns, Hopkins posted a career-high 91.7 field goal percentage. With 123 total points in 2023, Hopkins scored the second-most points in team history behind Jim Brown’s 126 points in 1965. He also set an NFL record for five consecutive games where he made a field goal of at least 50 yards.

As he reckons with the dip in production this season, the 11-year veteran said that the problem with his kicks this season has not been mental, but instead a result of a correction he needed to make in his kicking motion. Over the past two weeks, he’s studied film and worked to fix the issue.

Assistant head coach and special teams coordinator Bubba Ventrone noted the number of factors that go into a kick, such as the weather, field surface and snap, among others. Together with Hopkins, the two worked to identify what was going wrong with Hopkins’ field goal attempts this season.

“I knew what was going wrong, but it was a matter of like, okay, how do you fix that now with a swing that is fluid and that you don’t have to think about too drastically?” Hopkins said. “You don’t want to change too much in-season either. So, I feel like I got a good handle on it.”