Redskins Dilemma - Who to Keep, Hopkins or Rose?

The Redskins placed kicker Dustin Hopkins on the short-term injured reserve list last month with a hip injury to his kicking leg. After trying out multiple kickers, they decided on former Texas Longhorn standout Nick Rose to replace Hopkins.

Since his signing, the 23 year old Rose is 4 of 5 on field goal attempts, with his only miss being a blocked kick against Dallas. Rose has a long of 42 yards. He is 6 of 7 on extra point tries. Aside from his field goals, Rose has a very powerful leg on kickoffs, and can also generate great height on his kicks.

Hopkins, in his five games before injury this season, was 9 for 11 on field goal attempts, with his two misses coming over 50 yards. He was 12 of 13 on extra point tries. Last season, Hopkins was 34 of 42 on field goal attempts (81 percent average), and 36 of 39 on extra points. He too has a very powerful leg on kickoffs.

For his tenure in D.C., Hopkins is just 5 for 13 in field goal attempts of 50 yards or beyond, and has a career field goal percentage of 84 percent.

Rose has never attempted an NFL field goal beyond 50 yards, but he certainly has the leg to do so.

Hopkins won’t be eligible to return until week 15 when the Redskins face the Cardinals. In the mean time, Rose should get every chance to prove to the Redskins that he belongs.

Seeing what you have seen in Rose’s short time here, and already knowing what we have in Hopkins, who would you keep, and why?

Now, I realize we have 6 more weeks to make a decision on Rose based on his performance over these next 5 games, but where would you stand on this issue if a decision had to come before Sunday of this week?

We will obviously re-visit this question as the week 15 date approaches.