Jeff Locke will have to earn his job this year
By Dan Zinski
Jeff Locke won’t be the only punter in camp this year, and there’s a chance he could lose his job.
For three years the Vikings have tried to run a ball-control style of football with a punter who has been in the bottom two in the league according to PFF.
This year, if Jeff Locke wants to be the man handling punting duties in Minnesota, he’s going to have to beat out someone else to win the job.
Mark Craig of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune went down to Vikings rookie minicamp to get the skinny on former WVU punter Nick O’Toole aka Boomstache and learned the Vikings’ punter plans.
"“Talking with [coach Mike Zimmer], he said Jeff has one more year on his contract and we’ll see what happens,” O’Toole said. “He said for me and Taylor to come in and compete and whoever is the better punter this weekend will be signed and that guy is going to compete with Jeff. And that guy could win the job or he could just have his name out there for other teams to see.”"
The “Taylor” referred to by O’Toole is former Texas Tech punter Taylor Symmank, the no. 9 punter in the nation last year in average yards. O’Toole ranked 13th last year in the same category.
Not only are Symmank and O’Toole getting an audition, but the Vikings also took a look at former NDSU punter Ben LeCompte.
The Vikings also reportedly are working out former Brown University long snapper Courtland Clavette. Vikings special teams coach Mike Priefer visited Clavette at his pro day two years ago before the Vikes threw Kevin McDermott and Cullen Loeffler in the long snapper octagon and let them duke it out, with McDermott ultimately prevailing over the long-time Viking Loeffler.
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Blair Walsh as far as I know is entirely safe though after his missed chip shot in the playoffs I’m not sure he should be.
After watching Locke fail for three years, it only makes sense for the Vikings to audition punters. It’s kind of hard playing their style of football with a punter who can’t help you much in winning the field-position battle.
Whether it ends up being Boomstache, Symmank or LeComte battling Locke, the guy who is not Locke will be the fan favorite. And that will especially be true if it’s Boomstache.