Sources: Browns extend Hopkins after career year

The Cleveland Browns and kicker Dustin Hopkins reached agreement on a three-year, $15.9 million extension, sources told ESPN’s Adam Schefter on Monday, making him one of the NFL’s top five highest-paid kickers.

In 2023, Hopkins made a franchise-record 33 of 36 field goal attempts, including a career-long 58-yard field goal. Hopkins also set an NFL record with five consecutive games in which he made a field goal of at least 50 yards.

Hopkins, 33, was set to enter the final year of his contract with a base value of $2.875 million.

The Browns traded for Hopkins two weeks before the start of the 2023 season, sending a 2025 seventh-round pick to the Los Angeles Chargers.

A sixth-round pick of the Buffalo Bills in 2013, Hopkins had been cut by Buffalo, the New Orleans Saints and Washington Commanders. He then lost his kicking job with the Chargers before landing in Cleveland, where he had a career-best year.

Hopkins missed the Browns’ final two games of the regular season and their playoff loss to the Houston Texans because of a hamstring injury — he also sustained a serious hamstring injury with the Chargers in 2022 — but he is healthy and participated in the team’s minicamp.

The Browns earlier this offseason also re-signed Cade York, whom Hopkins replaced last season.