Bills kicker Dustin Hopkins placed on injured reserve

It looks like rookie Dustin Hopkins won’t be kicking again anytime soon. According to Pro Football Talk, the Buffalo Bills sixth-round pick in April’s draft has been placed on injured reserve and will miss the remainder of the season.

Hopkins, who was drafted to replace vetrean place-kicker Rian Lindell, has already missed every game this season with a groin injury. However, it looked like he was on his way to recovering. He practiced for the Bills on Monday and Tuesday last week before missing practice again Wednesday.

According to head coach Doug Marrone, seeing Hopkins practice kickoffs made the team realize that Hopkins was farther off than anticipated.

Hopkins replacement, Dan Carpenter, will continue to be the Bills’ kicker. So far, the 27-year-old has been filling in well, making 11 of 12 field goal attempts, including two from over 50 yards. Carpenter has made 82 percent of his fields goal attempts in his career.

Hopkins made all six of his field goal tries during the preseason. The Texas native made 83.3 percent of his field goals during his last year at Florida State, and was nearly perfect on extra point attempts. In college, he was known for his 55-yard, game winning kick against Clemson in 2010.