Vikings better not even think about signing Cody Parkey

The Chicago Bears are expected to release the veteran kicker this year and he is someone who has ties to the new special teams coach of the Minnesota Vikings.

Currently, the Minnesota Vikings do not have a kicker under contract for 2019. Dan Bailey assumed the role in Minnesota for the majority of last season, but he is scheduled to become a free-agent when the new league year begins in March.

Bailey is not expected to be too expensive, so the Vikings may just go ahead and re-sign him this offseason given their current lack of spending money. If Minnesota doesn’t bring him back for 2019, then turning to free agency will likely be their best option to find a new kicker for next season.

One kicker who is now expected to become a free-agent this year is Cody Parkey. According to NFL Media’s Ian Rapoport on Friday, the Chicago Bears have decided to release Parkey when the new league year begins.

With this news, some believe that the veteran kicker might be a candidate to fill the Vikings’ current opening for 2019. Especially with his connection to new Minnesota special teams coach Marwan Maalouf.

Before signing on with the Vikings this year, Maalouf spent the last six seasons as the assistant special teams coach for the Miami Dolphins. In 2017, he helped Parkey have the best single-season performance of his NFL career.

In his lone year with the Dolphins, the 27-year-old kicker made 21 of his 23 field goal attempts and 26 of his 29 extra point tries. But once he left Miami, Parkey wasn’t able to re-capture anything similar to his 2017 performance.

With the Bears last season, he missed eight field goals (including a 43-yard attempt that knocked Chicago out of the playoffs) and three extra points. He also has a career field goal percentage of just 83.9 percent.

Would Maalouf be able to help Parkey get back in the right direction if Minnesota were to sign him? Well, let’s hope for the sake of the Vikings and for the sanity of their fans, the team never has to to find out if they can fix his problems or not.

Minnesota has already had their heart broken too many times by kickers in the past and signing Parkey would just seem like an invitation for even more misery. He proved last season that he cannot be counted on in a clutch situation and the Vikings cannot afford to bring in another kicker that could ruin their entire season with a single miss.

There are plenty of kicking options for Minnesota to choose from in free agency this offseason, but Parkey should not be one of them.