Dan Bailey returning to the Vikings for the 2019 season

After a rough stretch over the past two seasons, the Minnesota Vikings have elected to bring back kicker Dan Bailey on a one-year deal.

For at least one season, the Minnesota Vikings’ revolving door at kicker has come to a stop. After exploring their limited options in free agency due to a lack of cap space, the Vikings have elected to bring back kicker Dan Bailey on a one-year deal for the 2019 season.

According to NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero, the deal is worth $1 million and can be worth up to $2 million with incentives.

Bailey came over to Minnesota early last season after the Daniel Carlson experiment failed. After joining the team as the second-most accurate kicker in NFL history, Bailey lived up to the almost legendary billing of being a Vikings kicker, going 21-for-28 (75 percent) on field goals and 30-for-31 on extra points in 14 games with Minnesota.

Last year was an extension of Bailey’s struggles over the last two seasons as he has only made 36 of his 48  field goal attempts (75 percent) and 56 of his 59 extra point attempts (94.9 percent) during that time. That decline from his first six seasons in the league (89.5 field goal percentage) caused the Dallas Cowboys to cut the veteran in favor of rookie Brett Maher last spring.

Despite Bailey’s struggles, there may be some hope for optimism in 2019. The Vikings made a change at special teams coach after Mike Priefer elected not to return to take a similar position with the Cleveland Browns. Minnesota hired Marwin Maloof to take his place with the hope that a different voice in the locker room can help avoid what happened to Carlson last year.

While it won’t be a signing that will get Minnesota’s fans excited every time the field goal unit heads out to attempt a kick, perhaps a full season with the team will get results out of the former All-Pro kicker.