After the Cleveland Browns’ home-opening loss to the Cincinnati Bengals, fans were calling for rookie kicker Andre Szmyt
to be cut. He missed an extra point and a short field goal with about two minutes to go, which proved to be the difference in a 17-16 loss. The Browns stuck with him, and teammates rallied behind him, including veteran quarterback Joe Flacco indicating that he was going to spend more time with him.For now, it all paid off. With the Browns being shut out 10-0, they ended up pulling
off a crazy 13-10 win over the Green Bay Packers this past Sunday. That included Szmyt accounting for 7 of those points: a 35-yard field goal with with 3:38 remaining, an extra point with 3:01 remaining, and then the game-winning 55 yarder as time expired. For his effort, Szmyt was just named the AFC Special Teams Player of the Week:
The play-on-words with Szmyt’s last name is already catching on, and that includes us having a brand new t-shirt available from BreakingT:
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Hopefully, Szmyt can keep it up. Even though he struggled in Week 1, I attested that it was still a to be determined scenario with him. Dustin Hopkins had season-long struggles that he couldn’t get over last year, but the team still gave him a shot this training camp. Once he continued to miss kicks, the rookie won the job. It would have been easy to cut him after the first week and sign a veteran kicker, and I think it would have come down to that had he botched a few more short kicks. The way his teammates rallied around him is commendable too.
