Behind the media circus following the Minnesota Vikings‘ quarterback battle is a potential overhaul of the team’s special teams unit with punter and kicker competitions slated for this summer.
Special teams coordinator Matt Daniels made no concessions that starting punter Ryan Wright‘s job safe, calling out Wright for a “sophomore slump” last year after posting the NFL’s lowest touchback percentage (1.4%) in his rookie season in 2022.
“You look at any rookie, especially those who do have success in the first year like Mr. Wright did, either A you’re going to continue to accelerate on the path that you’re on or B, you’re going to have what’s considered to be a sophomore slump. I would consider the performance that he did have last year somewhat of a sophomore slump,” Daniels said in a May 21 news conference.
“[He had] the highest touchback percentage in the league, whereas in year one, he led the league in the lowest touchback percentage. So you look at what went into that, how we can coach it better, and how we can be better in that aspect of the game,” Daniels added.
Part of the Vikings’ solution was signing free-agent punter Seth Vernon in March. Vernon hasn’t kicked in a regular-season game yet in his career, but his presence does send Wright a message that he will have to earn his role this year after a down 2023 season.
Vikings Ranked Among NFL’s Worst in Starting Field Position
The Vikings’ special teams unit underwent a shakeup when they left Greg Joseph walk and signed Vernon. They also went against conventional wisdom and invested in Joseph’s replacement by drafting a kicker, Alabama’s Will Reichard.
These moves show the Vikings were not satisfied with their special teams unit that ranked among the league’s worst last season.
The Vikings’ opponent’s average starting field position from their own 30.1 ranked 28th in the league last season. They ranked eighth in 2022 with a 27.1 average opponent starting field position in 2022.
Wright played a hand in the significant drop-off in performance.
In 2023, he placed just 28.8 percent of his punts inside the 20 (29th out of 33 qualified punters) after landing 43.8% of his punts inside the 20 in 2022, per Pro Football Reference.
Vikings GM’s Excitement Over Kicker Rivals 1st-Round Haul
While the Vikings received largely praise for their first-round selections of J.J. McCarthy and Dallas Turner, general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah may have been more thrilled to land Reichard in the draft.
During the draft, Adofo-Mensah was playing the hypotheticals out loud and was over the moon over the potential to land tackle Walter Rouse, center Michael Jurgens and Reichard.
The Vikings’ landed Rouse in the sixth round with the 177th pick, Reichard at No. 203 and Jurgens in the seventh round at 230th overall.
“As fired up as you get for Dallas Turner, if we get Rouse, Jurgens and a kicker, I’m going to be like ‘Best draft ever!’,” Adofo-Mensah said with a fistbump in the Vikings’ war room.
Analyzing #Vikings GM Kwesi Adofo-Mensah in this… there’s ZERO chance Will Reichard is losing the kicking battle to John Parker Romo 👀
The Vikings’ selecting a kicker in the draft bucks analytics that argue drafting a kicker offers little value over an undrafted kicker. Adofo-Mensah is likely aware of this, but his excitement is refreshing and emblematic of his third draft, where he strayed from accumulating picks and took bigger swings on players they identified as fits for the team.
Reichard will compete with XFL kicker John Parker Romo in training camp.
