SmashMouth

It might not be the most exciting or chronicled battle of the offseason.

It’s not the kind of thing that moves the needle in print or over the airwaves.

But the battle between New Orleans Saints kickers Dustin Hopkins and Zach Hocker should be one of the more closely contested fights this offseason, and it carries significant importance.

For the first time in a long time, the Saints have the opportunity to lock up a kicker who can be trusted and, if things go well, hold down the job for the foreseeable future. That’s a luxury that Sean Payton has not enjoyed in recent years.

The coach has paraded through a cast of kickers since landing here in 2006, going from John Carney to Olindo Mare to Martin Gramatica to Garrett Hartley to John Kasay back to Hartley and to Shayne Graham. There also were times when the Saints carried two kickers. It has been a revolving door, with Hartley the only player to achieve some degree of security.




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