Bills place K Hopkins on IR
The Buffalo Bills placed rookie kicker Dustin Hopkins on injured reserve with a groin injury.
Hopkins, a sixth-round draft pick, has not played in the regular season because of the injury.
Dan Carpenter will continue kicking duties for Buffalo. Carpenter is 11 of 12 on field-goal attempts through the first games.
Hopkins practiced on a limited basis early last week before missing practice Wednesday. Coach Doug Marrone said Monday that the team decided to place Hopkins on IR after his kickoffs in practice did not look good.
"The problem was we were bringing him along, one step being kicking field goals and then the bigger issue was once we did the kickoff which is obviously a much different type of movement and it was like, 'Whoa,'" said Marrone. "So we didn't really know where we were at until we got to that step.
"The baby steps of going in and getting an extra point, to kicking a 20 to 25 yard field goal we were feeling good. It's a limited amount of movement, different than the kick off. Once we started doing the kick off it was like wow that movement is far behind. So to say whether it's a setback or not, I don't know. We weren't able to have that opportunity because we were just trying to get him back."
Hopkins made all six field goals he attempted during preseason.
The team was also awarded offensive lineman Antoine McClain on waivers from Oakland and released offensive lineman Sam Young.
