On Thursday morning, the NFL’s kicker market heated up a little bit. The Washington Commanders sent a conditional 7th-round pick to the Cleveland Browns in exchange for Cade York, one of two kickers previously on the Browns’ roster.
York, who kicked for the Browns in 2022, lost a battle in training camp to Dustin Hopkins a year ago and has evidently done the same this season. But he will get another chance in Washington, where former Brown and Detroit Lion Riley Patterson was seemingly going to have the job. This movement all underscores the fact that kicking in the NFL is a tough, fickle duty, and it also kicks off (pun intended) a bit of a busy season around the league as teams try to settle on their kickers ahead of or during final cuts.