New coordinator in charge
Following the 2018 season, the Vikings and longtime special teams coordinator Mike Priefer ended up parting ways.
Priefer decided to join the Cleveland Browns and Minnesota brought in former Miami Dolphins assistant Marwan Maalouf to be their new special teams coach. Sometimes a change at the top does wonders for the bottom.
One thing that was consistent under Priefer was that the Vikings’ kicking game was always inconsistent. Minnesota would miss kicks when it needed them the most and that killed the seasons of more than one talented roster.
A year ago, Maalouf helped coach a Miami special teams that featured a kicker in rookie Jason Sanders who hit 90 percent of his field goal attempts. Vikings kicker Dan Bailey only converted 75 percent of his field goal tries last season.
Obviously, that could just be a kicker thing and many factors could go into it one way or the other. But let’s go back one year further.
Cody Parkey Miami’s kicker in 2017 and he hit 91 percent of his field goals attempts. That same season over in Minnesota, kicker Kai Forbath made 84 percent of his field goal tries.
So it is enough to make one wonder if there was something Priefer was telling his kickers to do that they weren’t super comfortable with. It will definitely be interesting to see how the Browns’ kicker does in 2019 under Priefer’s leadership and what his final field goal percentage ends up being.
If Bailey’s kicking percentage goes up in 2019 significantly, Maalouf shouldn’t be given all the credit, but he should be at least be praised for a fair amount of the improvement.
It will also be interesting to see if the Vikings improve in other areas of their special teams this season. Overall, the unit was right about in the middle of the league last year and it’s quite possible the team will be excited to impress and work hard for a new man in charge in 2019.