The Cleveland Browns are in a tough spot heading into Week 3. The team has lost both of their first two games, falling just short of a surprise upset victory against the Cincinnati Bengals in their season-opener, before getting blown out by the Baltimore Ravens in Week 2. Now, they have a matchup with the undefeated Green Bay Packers on their slate, and unsurprisingly, they are heavy underdogs for this game.
As if things couldn’t get worse for Cleveland, it received a worrying injury update regarding kicker Andre Szmyt on Friday. After feeling something in his calf at the team’s final practice of the week, Szmyt’s status for the Browns‘ clash with the Packers is suddenly up in the air, meaning the team could need to find a new kicker within the next 24 hours.
Andre Szmyt Dealing with Calf Injury Ahead of Week 3
Szmyt didn’t get selected in the 2023 NFL Draft, but he initially latched on with the Chicago Bears. He didn’t make it through training camp with the team, though, as he got released early in August, and after spending the entire NFL season without a team, Szmyt ended up signing with the St. Louis Battlehawks of the United Football League in January 2024.
After enjoying some success with the Battlehawks, the Browns signed Szmyt to their practice squad late last year, and he eventually earned a reserve/future contract from the team at the end of the season. After being briefly released and re-signed in June, Szmyt entered training camp in a competition with Dustin Hopkins, with the former winning the starting job.
While Szmyt hit both of his extra point attempts and his long field goal attempt against the Ravens, he missed a field goal and an extra point in the team’s Week 1 loss to the Bengals, which was a tough pill to swallow when considering they lost the game by one point. Now, he’s dealing with a calf injury that could prevent him from playing on Sunday, with head coach Kevin Stefanski revealing he’s set to undergo an MRI on Friday.
“During practice. Felt something. We’ll get an MRI and see what it is,” Stefanski said when speaking to reporters on Friday, while also noting it’s “premature” to know whether or not the team will be signing another kicker in the wake of this development.
Browns Could Need a Replacement for Andre Szmyt in Week 3
GettyAndre Szmyt has popped up on the Browns injury report ahead of Week 3 with a calf injury
If Szmyt can’t go on Sunday, the Browns would have to quickly find a potential replacement for him. However, they don’t have another kicker on their roster, and they don’t have one on their practice squad either, which really puts the front office in a tight spot. However, there are options available for them: they just need to figure out what’s going on with Szmyt.
The obvious choice to replace Szmyt would be Hopkins, who is still on the free agent market after getting released by Cleveland back in August. First, the team will need to confirm whether or not Szmyt can play, because they won’t want to add a kicker just for the sake of doing so. With kickoff for this game scheduled for 1 p.m. ET on Sunday, all eyes will be on Szmyt to see what his injury status ends up being.
Browns Get Last-Minute Injury Concern for Kicker Andre Szmyt — MRI Pending