4 pleasant surprises from the first half of the Vikings’ 2018 season

Matt Wile – P

A few days before their first game of the season, the Vikings decided to make a sudden change with their punting situation. Minnesota ended up cutting ties with veteran Ryan Quigley and claiming Wile off of waivers to be their new starting punter.

Minnesota Vikings

At the time, it looked like a pretty risky move for the Vikings to make. But so far this year, it seems like Minnesota made the correct call.

In nine games this season, Wile is averaging 44.5 yards per punt and just 27.5 percent of his 40 punts have been returned by the Vikings’ opponents (second-best percentage in the NFL).

21 of his punts have also landed inside the opposing 20-yard line and nine have been downed by Minnesota players (most in the league).

Thanks to an unimpressive hangtime average and having 68.2 percent of his punts returned during this past preseason, Quigley did not resemble the player that he was for Minnesota in 2017. The Vikings realized this before it developed into a big problem and their decision to claim Wile off of waivers has proved to be a smart one so far.

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