Minnesota Vikings history is stained by the kicking position. As long as I’ve been alive (since 1998 — sorry, my fault, guys), kickers have whiffed gimmes or just simply not performed for long stretches of the season. Sure, they work out fine for other teams, but not for the Vikings. And it just keeps happening.
So then, with a team that appears to be built to win now, why haven’t the Vikings invested in the kicking position yet this offseason?
Currently, there are two kickers on the roster, Greg Joseph and Riley Patterson. Joseph is heading into his third season, and Patterson is a rookie.
Joseph made 17 of his 20 field-goal attempts with the Cleveland Browns in 2018 and the Tennessee Titans in 2019. That’s really not enough to determine whether or not he can be an effective kicker, but at least there’s a competition in camp.
Kicker is really the weakest position on the Vikings’ roster with the recent conclusion to the Danielle Hunter drama and the signing of Sheldon Richardson. With confidence in the team growing, it’s only right for the weakest link on the team to be a special teams spot.
The Vikings are poised to make a playoff run this year. The Green Bay Packers are facing turmoil with their MVP quarterback, and the Detroit Lions are gonna Lion. The biggest concern right now is the Chicago Bears. But given that they’ve said Andy Dalton is their Day 1 starter, the Vikings should be competitive in the NFC North, especially if Aaron Rodgers doesn’t return to Green Bay.
Still, given their history with kickers and how much the Vikings have invested in the team this offseason, it seems awfully perilous to be sitting here in June without a concrete plan at kicker. And that may be the only thing holding this team back, barring a veteran signing in the coming months.
Let’s put one hand over our eyes and peek through our fingers at the noteworthy low points in Vikings’ kicker history.
1998
Fortunately, I wasn’t old enough to feel the pain firsthand in 1999. But unfortunately, my birth may have been the catalyst for the Vikings’ kicking curse.
I’ll keep it brief, but I wanted to bring it up for fun.
Gary Anderson’s important 1998-99 season stats:
- 100% regular season field-goal accuracy
- 100% regular-season extra-point accuracy
- 0% postseason field-goal accuracy to clinch victory
I don’t know what else to tell you about this one other than it started the curse of the Vikings’ kickers.
2015
This was Adrian Peterson’s last great year with Minnesota. Teddy Bridgewater was at the helm and was good enough to bring the Vikings to the Wild Card round with an 11-5 record.
Enough time has passed that this kick may not be as debilitating to fans as it once was. Blair Walsh is no longer in the league, and the team has evolved quite a bit since. But this is undoubtedly the second-worst kick in Minnesota Vikings history, and nothing else about the season can redeem that.
Walsh had an astounding rookie season in 2012, nearly breaking the all-time rookie record for points scored. He also hit 10/10 field goals of 50-plus yards, another NFL record. He was elected as a First-Team All-Pro.
But then he was, ahem, lackluster. He was never truly awful, but after the 2015 Wild Card miss, he had the yips.
Pre 2015 wide-left kick, Walsh was good for converting 86% of his field goals. Post wide-left kick, Walsh hit just 73% of his attempts.
2018
One of the more recent kicking mishaps in Minnesota involved Daniel Carlson. And it wasn’t really Carlson’s fault.
The Vikings drafted Carlson in the fifth round of the 2018 NFL Draft, a pretty big investment for the position. But since they hadn’t had a consistent kicker since Walsh was a rookie, it was generally accepted as a valid selection.
Carlson’s time in Minnesota ended almost before it started when he blew a Week 2 game against the Packers in overtime. He missed three kicks, including one in overtime, to send the game to a tie. A dreadful performance, but did it merit being cut?
Things may be different had the team stuck it out with him. He set the record as the Las Vegas Raiders’ most-accurate kicker at 94% his first year with the team and has since converted on 87.2% of his field goals. He was sitting at 25% when the Vikings moved on.
He may not have been cut had the Week 2 game been against anyone other than the Packers. But that also might have been the reason he was able to improve with the Raiders. It was reported that Carlson took the time off to rework his kicking, and a fresh start may have been just what he needed. Nevertheless, it’s another instance of the kicking woes the Vikings have endured.
2019-20
It’s only natural that the second-most accurate kicker in NFL history comes to Minnesota and starts missing kicks. Dan Bailey was released from the Dallas Cowboys in 2018 after suffering a groin injury, and the Vikings scooped him up mid-season. It was reported that Bailey was waiting for an opportunity to sign with a playoff-bound team.
The Vikings delivered on their end: They made it to the divisional round in 2019. Bailey? Well, he’s no longer the second-most accurate kicker in NFL history. Luckily for the Vikings, there were no big stakes in 2020 for the majority of the season.
Bailey was PFF’s worst-rated kicker in the NFL last year. Only two kickers were rated lower, but they only had a total of three extra-point attempts and no field goal attempts. It was an unfortunate fall from grace for a once-great player.
An honorable mention here goes out to Kaare Vedvik. He was a punter/kicker the Vikings traded a 2020 fifth-round pick for. Turns out a hybrid punter and kicker doesn’t excel at either position, and he ended being waived by the team just 20 days later in favor of Bailey.
You’d think the franchise, and specifically Mike Zimmer, would’ve learned a lesson going into this upcoming season. The only way I’ll be confident in the kicker is six weeks into the season, or when a veteran is signed to the roster. Until then, the team lives and dies by the kicker. Whoever it is.
