The Vikings may need a new kicker, but it is too late to make a change

Some may want the Minnesota Vikings to get rid of Kai Forbath, but the kicker is really the team’s best option for the remainder of the 2017 season.

In his 11 games this year, Minnesota Vikings kicker Kai Forbath has made all of his field goal and extra point attempts in just four of them. Since Week 7 against the Baltimore Ravens, Forbath has missed at least one kick in all but one game.

For a team like the Vikings that will likely be battling in close matchups for the rest of the regular season and into the playoffs, missing kicks in a key situation is the last thing this team can afford. Especially with the infamous history this franchise has with their kickers.

After a bit of a rocky start to the year, it looked like Forbath was getting back on track when he converted on 16 of his 17 field goal and extra point attempts from Week 3 to Week 6. But since then, it seems like he has had one or two missed kicks each game that cause many to start scratching their heads in confusion.

Minnesota Vikings

Especially when it comes to extra points. No kicker has missed more extra point attempts in 2017 than Forbath, who has failed to get five through the middle of the goal posts.

Now if this these misses were occurring during the first half of season, then Minnesota might have brought in a few kickers off the street for a tryout. But since there are only five games remaining this year, it is just too late to make any sort of drastic change like releasing Forbath.

Plus, there is a reason why the kickers who are available are not currently employed by an NFL team and it is not because they are just some diamond in the rough waiting to be discovered. Someone like former Buffalo Bills kicker (and current free-agent) Dan Carpenter is not going to come in and just magically fix the Vikings’ kicking problems with a only a third of the season left.

So unfortunately, Minnesota could possibly be in a very familiar situation once again with a kicker struggling in an important scenario (great…). For the Vikings’ sake, hopefully their offense and defense just continue to play at a high-level like they have been recently and Forbath’s kicking skills do not become a major factor.

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It could be worse though, right? At least the Vikings do not employ that head case of a kicker, Ray Finkle.