On Monday, Chargers head coach Brandon Staley said this of Tristan Vizcaino: “We still have a lot of confidence in Tristan,” despite his ongoing struggles.
Three days later, Los Angeles waived Vizcaino and signed eight-year NFL kicker Dustin Hopkins.
Hopkins joins the Bolts with Washington franchise records for highest career field goal conversion rate (84.0%) and most field goals from 50 or more yards (14). In addition, he made 163 of his 194 field goal attempts.
“With his experience, his productivity, we just felt like this was good timing for us and for him,” Staley said.
Furthermore, the team is hopeful that Hopkins’ kicks can find the end zone more frequently, as Vizcaino’s kickoff touchback rate was 41.94%, which ranked 30th in the league.
Vizcaino was the first kicker since Vikings’ Fred Cox in 1974 to miss five extra-point attempts through a team’s first six games.
“We still believe in him as a player and we’re going to continue to coach him, but we felt like with where we’re at this season, we felt like Dustin would give us a lift and it would also allow us time to continue to develop and coach Tristan.”
On Thursday, the Chargers signed Vizcaino to the practice squad.
Hopkins makes his first start in the blue and gold against the Patriots Sunday, marking the 11th kicker to play for the Bolts dating back to 2017.
