https://chargerswire.usatoday.com/2023/06/14/chargers-minicamp-kicker-competition-cameron-dicker-dustin-hopkins/

Alex Insdorf
June 14, 2023 3:26 pm PT

Cameron Dicker and Dustin Hopkins are duking it out during the spring as
the kicker competition continues. Based on the account of Chargers’
Senior Writer Eric Smith, the battle seems to still be on relatively
even ground.

On Tuesday during mandatory minicamp, both kickers took five field goals
in team drills. Dicker and Hopkins each went 4/5 on their attempts.

Per Smith, adding Tuesday’s totals to their overall spring competition
would make Hopkins 15 for 17 (88.2%) on field goal attempts that
reporters were able to see. In the same practice window open to the
media, Dicker has gone 10 for 11 (90.9%) this offseason.

With both players kicking well so far, it doesn’t seem as though we’ll
get much separation prior to training camp and the preseason.

Last season, Hopkins played five games before he was permanently
sidelined for the rest of the season with a nagging hamstring injury. He
went nine for ten on field goals and 100% on extra points in the games
he did play. The most memorable performance from Hopkins was when he hit
four field goals against Denver on Monday Night Football despite his leg
injury:

After Hopkins was placed on injured reserve, Dicker was the starter for
the rest of the season. In 10 games with the Chargers, he was perfect on
22 extra-point attempts and was 19/20 on field goals. Prior to his
tenure with Los Angeles, Dicker also started one game for Philadelphia
last year. He had two game-winning field goals against the Cardinals and
Falcons on the season.

The financial difference between the two kickers when the Chargers may
ultimately have to release one of them is interesting. Prior to last
season, Hopkins signed a three-year extension to stay in Los Angeles.
With a post-June 1st cut, the Chargers would take a $1.9 million dead
cap charge and save about $1.2 million against the cap with Hopkins’
$3.1 million cap number. On the other hand, Dicker has no guaranteed
money as an exclusive rights free agent. The Chargers would save $870K
with his release.

Another possible route could be trading the kicker who loses the
competition to a team that needs one later in the offseason. The Jaguars
traded Riley Patterson to Detroit for a future seventh-round pick after
they acquired Brandon McManus as their new starter. If the Chargers
eventually have a clear winner in the competition, they could dangle the
other kicker in trade talks prior to being waived.

There’s still a lot of time left in the offseason before we’ll know who
wins out, but it’s clear that both kickers are performing well so far.
At this point, neither is close to clinching the 2023 job.