5 things that must change for the Minnesota Vikings in 2019

No drama in the kicking game

To many long-suffering Vikings fans, it seems the kicking woes have been ongoing since Gary Anderson missed a 38-yard field goal with 2:07 left in the 1998 NFC Championship game—the only field goal he missed all season.

Even though that might be a slight exaggeration, the kicking game has been far too much of an adventure the past several seasons.

The past three years the Vikings have used four different kickers, changing kickers during the season in 2016 and 2018. One key to the kicking game is consistency, something the Vikings lack. Since 2016, Vikings kickers have made 81 of 101 field goal attempts—good for only 80.2 percent. The league average over this time has been 84.4 percent.

Part of it might be that, now former, special teams coach Mike Priefer’s approach became ineffective. Look no further than to last season’s fifth-round draft pick, Dan Carlson.

Carlson made the Vikings final roster but converted only one of four field goal attempts. The three he missed came in Week 2 against the Packers in Green Bay costing the Vikings the win.

Carlson was replaced by Dan Bailey in Week 3. In his first six seasons with the Cowboys, Bailey converted 89.5 percent of this field goals. A groin injury in 2017 dropped his percentage to 75 as he missed five of 20 field goals. He was not any better in 2018 for the Vikings, missing seven of 28 attempts, again a conversion rate of only 75 percent.

Carlson signed with the Raiders later in the season and converted 16 of 17 field goals in 10 games—a 94.1 percent conversion rate. Priefer and the Vikings placed some of the blame on punter Matt Wile in that he had little experience as a holder.

Hopefully, new special teams coach Marwan Maalouf will restore some sanity to this crazy situation.