Cleveland Browns 2024 training camp position group preview: Kickers, punter, long snapper

BEREA — Training camp is fast approaching for the Browns.

Rookies are scheduled to report on Monday, with the veterans coming in the next day. The Browns will then head to the Greenbrier in West Virginia on Thursday for the first of seven practices over nine days there before returning to Berea for the remainder of camp.

Leading up to the start of camp, each Browns position group is getting its moment in the spotlight. Today, the specialists take center stage.

For the previous position group previews, look here:

∙ Quarterbacks

∙ Running backs

∙ Tight ends

∙ Wide receivers

∙ Offensive tackles

∙ Guards

∙ Center

∙ Defensive ends

∙ Defensive tackles

∙ Linebackers

∙ Cornerbacks

∙ Safeties

Here's a look at the Browns specialists heading into training camp.

On the Cleveland Browns roster: Specialists

Dustin Hopkins (kicker), Cade York (kicker), Corey Bojorquez (punter), Charley Hughlett (long snapper)

Projected starters: Dustin Hopkins (kicker), Corey Bojorquez (punter), Charley Hughlett (long snapper)

This really isn't complicated, and any potential complications were negated by the three-year extension to which the Browns and Hopkins agreed on Monday that made him one of the highest-paid kickers in the league. The 33-year-old was picked up in an August trade with the Los Angeles Chargers before last year and turned into a major weapon. The two-time AFC Special Teams Player of the Week set Browns single-season records with 33 field goals and eight field goals of 50 yards or longer. Bojorquez was re-signed in March to a new deal after having punted the last two seasons with the Browns. He's averaged 49 yards on 148 punts with Cleveland, the best average he's had at any of his three NFL stops (Green Bay and Buffalo the others). Hughlett, meanwhile, is one of the Browns' longest-tenured players.

One to watch: Cade York

Hopkins' new extension makes York's future with the Browns complicated. That would be in line with most of York's time with the Browns, who took him in the fourth round of the 2022 draft out of LSU. The hero of his NFL debut when he made the game-winning kick with 8 seconds left in the 2022 season opener at the Carolina Panthers was released last August because of inconsistency. After spending time with the Tennessee Titans and New York Giants, but not kicking in a game, the Browns brought him back in March on a futures deal. It would seem York's role with the Browns, assuming he remains on the roster through training camp, would be either to provide an alternative to Hopkins in order to rest the older kicker's leg or eventually to end up on the practice squad. Regardless, it does seem like the Browns are intent on at least trying to give York a place to at least work on his craft and try to re-calibrate his career.

Potential training camp battle: How the new kickoff rule impacts things

There really isn't a major training camp battle to actually watch. The biggest special teams story of the preseason will be the implementation of the new kickoff rule and how teams, including the Browns, adjust and utilize the new opportunities created by the rule. That impacts personnel in other areas of the roster more directly, as weird as that seems, than it does the actual specialists.

Impact of injuries entering training camp

Hopkins' hamstring will no doubt be monitored since they've impacted the last two seasons in one way or the other. However, it seems the Browns are taking some precautions against overworking him.

Chris Easterling can be reached at ceasterling@thebeaconjournal.com. Read more about the Browns at www.beaconjournal.com/sports/browns. Follow him on X at @ceasterlingABJ