The Minnesota Vikings traded up with the New York Jets for the second time in the fifth round to select kicker Daniel Carlson out of Auburn.
Minnesota initially gave up their 167th pick and a seventh-round pick to move up 10 spots to take TE Tyler Conklin. Then they traded up again to regain 167, giving up their 180th pick (fifth round) and 204th pick (sixth round) to New York but recouping Pick 225.
Carlson will seemingly compete with Kai Forbath for the Vikings’ placekicker job — and considering Forbath has a non-guaranteed contract, Carlson may be the favorite to take the job.
In four years with the Tigers, Carlson went 92 of 114 (80.7 percent) on field goals and 100 percent on extra points.
His production profile is very similar to that of former Vikings kicker Blair Walsh, the last kicker the Vikings drafted back in 2012. Walsh also kicked for four years in college, excelled as a sophomore and junior, then dropped off as a senior. Carlson was the same way, hitting 85 and 88 percent of his field goals, respectively, as a sophomore and junior, before dropping down to 74 percent in his final season.
This is the second straight year the Vikings may have a kicking competition in training camp. Forbath beat out Marshall Koehn prior to the 2017 season.
Stay tuned for further analysis of the Vikings’ third-day draft picks.
