Dan Bailey has solved the Vikings kicking woes, so far

For now, it looks like the Minnesota Vikings have made the right decision in going with veteran kicker Dan Bailey for the 2018 NFL season.

After rookie kicker Daniel Carlson (fifth-round selection out of Auburn) missed all three of his field goal attempts in a Week 2 29-29 tie against the Green Bay Packers on the road, the Minnesota Vikings said goodbye to their new kicker after just two games.

They released Carlson the next day and signed veteran Dan Bailey.

Bailey spent his first seven seasons with the Dallas Cowboys before being released before the start of the season. He is currently the third-most accurate kicker in NFL history (87.6 percent) behind Justin Tucker and Stephen Gostkowski.

Currently with the Vikings, Bailey is 11 for 14 (78.6 percent) on field goals and he has made all 11 of his extra points.

Yes, he has missed three kicks (one from 28 yards), but overall he is off to a decent start and it is still very early. He is a proven kicker and playing indoors most of the time will certainly help. All of his misses this season came outdoors.

Ever since Gary Anderson missed that crucial 38-yard field goal late in the fourth quarter of the 1998 NFC Championship after going perfect all year before that kick, Vikings fans usually get nervous when a field goal is about to be attempted by one of their own kickers, especially in clutch situations.

In 2002, new Vikings kicker Doug Brien missed two extra points (it was much more rare for kickers to miss extra points than it has been the past three years due to them being closer) in a Week 2 45-39 overtime loss to the Buffalo Bills.

Head coach Mike Tice talked about the rarity of missed extra points after the game.

"“In my experience in the NFL, I don’t know if I’ve seen a kicker miss two extra points in a season, let alone a game. A lot of things happened in this game, but when it comes right down to it, the missed extra points cost us a victory.”"

The Vikings brought Anderson back out of retirement later that week and made him their kicker the rest of the season. Brien stayed on the roster for four more games as the kickoff specialist before being released.

Blair Walsh had a great rookie season in 2012, which included going 10 for 10 on kicks from 50 yards or more (an NFL record). He was selected to his only Pro Bowl that season.

Walsh was never the same after that season and he missed a 27-yard field goal in the closing seconds of a 10-9 first-round playoff loss to the Seattle Seahawks in 2015.

Walsh’s struggles continued the into the 2016 season. He was released by the Vikings after nine games and Kai Forbath was brought in to replace him.

Forbath did well on field goals, going 47 for 53 (88.7 percent ) in his 23 games with the team. But he was just 45 for 53 on extra points (84.9 percent). His five extra point misses last season were a league-high.

Forbath did make two clutch kicks during last season’s playoff win over the New Orleans Saints. But his extra point misses were just too hard for Minnesota general manager Rick Spielman and his staff to ignore.

This year, Forbath and Carlson battled it out into the preseason before the Vikings ultimately decided to go with Carlson and his big leg.

In two games Carlson went 1 for 4 on field goals and 6 for 6 on extra points. Two of his three misses against the Packers in Week 2 came in overtime.

Beating the Packers would have been a huge win for this team, especially since they are divisional rivals. However, there was also a silver lining to this.

Had Minnesota lost the game in regulation, they probably could still have Carlson on the roster since two of his misses came in overtime. Even if they won in overtime with him, they may have stuck with him longer than they should have and he may have cost them other games going forward.

One can make the argument that with him out on the field, the Vikings would have lost to the Philadelphia Eagles in Week 5.

Bailey did miss two of his first three kicks against the Eagles (28 and 45 yards), which made many Vikings fans think, “oh no, not again.” Minnesota head coach Mike Zimmer may have also been thinking that.

Minnesota Vikings

After that though he made his final two kicks with the last one being from 52 yards, giving the Vikings a 23-14 lead late in the fourth quarter and eventually giving them the win.

Bailey received other offers too prior to signing with Minnesota and he would not have been around long had the Vikings stuck with Carlson. Finding an upgrade over Carlson would not have been very difficult, but getting someone like Bailey would have been.

Bailey was undrafted in 2011 out of Oklahoma State. Including this season, he is now 197 for 225 on field goals (87.6 percent) and 287 for 289 (99.3 percent) on extra points (both misses came last season).

He was a Pro-Bowler in 2015. He made 93.8 percent of his field goals that season which was an NFL best. He also made all 56 of his extra points in 2014, which was also a league best.

If Bailey has to kick a crucial field goal in a playoff game, fans will once again think of the Anderson and Walsh misses. But maybe things will be different this time around?

The Bailey era has been off to a decent start so far. Will it continue? There is a good chance it will and perhaps it could get even better.