Jeff Locke will remain the Vikings’ only punter for the foreseeable future, special teams coach Mike Priefer indicated on Wednesday.
Remember that big punter competition the Vikings were reportedly going to stage this year? Yeah well, strike that for the time being.
According to special teams coach Mike Priefer, the Vikings have elected to go with Jeff Locke as the only punter on the roster, and it sounds like it will stay that way for the foreseeable future.
Priefer did indicate that if Locke doesn’t perform well, the Vikings could re-visit signing a punter (via Minneapolis Star-Tribune):
"“I think it depends on how Jeff does the rest of the spring and how comfortable [G.M.] Rick [Spielman] is and how comfortable Coach [Mike] Zimmer is and we’ll talk about that as the spring goes on,” he said. “We had two good, young rookie punters at minicamp who performed very, very well so we know those guys are out there if we need to go that route.”"
The Vikings invited former Texas Tech punter Taylor Symmank and former West Virgina punter Nick O’Toole to rookie minicamp. In an interview at the time, O’Toole said that he was told the Vikings would sign a punter to compete with Locke, but evidently O’Toole was mistaken.
Though the Vikings elected not to sign a rookie punter, the message must have gotten through to Jeff Locke: better punt well this spring because we have a couple guys lined up.
If that wasn’t enough motivation for Locke, he also happens to be entering the last year of his contract.
News that the Vikes intend to continue with Locke as the sole punter on the team is a little bit frustrating in light of his poor performance over the course of his career.
How bad has Locke been? According to Pro Football Focus, he has been one of the very worst punters in the league each year since he was drafted in the fifth round in 2013.
Priefer however has stuck up for Locke, reminding fans that Locke had to punt outdoors at TCF Bank Stadium. The clear implication being that with the Vikings moving indoors this year, Locke will be better.
Maybe Locke will be better this year, but I still wonder why the Vikings don’t just bring in another punter. What can it hurt to have two punters out there working in OTAs and minicamp?
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Working out a pair of rookie punters may have sent a message to Locke, but to me the team should be beyond sending messages. I don’t get why they won’t just sign a punter and have a clear competition from now through camp, unless it’s just a matter of not wanting to use up a roster spot on a specialist position.