Vikings overhauled their special teams, but what took so long?

The Minnesota Vikings put together a complete purge of their special teams unit on Sunday, but it was a move that should have been made a long time ago.

Throughout their history, the Minnesota Vikings have had plenty of problems with kickers. If you mention Gary Anderson at a Minnesota establishment, you’ll probably get thrown through the front window. If you mention Blair Walsh, you’ll probably get kicked into the Mississippi River. Anything in between? Well, you get the point.

For all the historic problems that the Vikings have had at the kicker position, they have seemed to be amplified since Mike Zimmer took over as head coach. In the first five years of the Zimmer regime, the Vikings converted just over 80 percent (141-for-175) of their field goal attempts. Last year was especially bad, however, as the combination of Daniel Carlson and Dan Bailey went 22-for-32 (68%) on field goals last season.

Because of a similar level of failure on kickoff and punt coverage, Mike Preifer was the man who took the fall as he was fired after eight seasons as the Vikings’ special teams coordinator. When he was replaced by Marwan Maalouf, it felt like that would be the end of the special teams overhaul. Instead, it was just the beginning.

The Vikings made a then-questionable decision to use their final pick of the 2019 NFL Draft on long snapper Austin Cutting. With Kevin McDermott still on the roster and the re-signing of Bailey, it didn’t seem like it would be more of the same.

As Bailey struggled throughout training camp with his kicks, it seemed like it would be a matter of getting the right personnel on the field. As it turned out, those players weren’t on the current roster as the Vikings released McDermott and traded for Kaare Vedvik to presumably replace Bailey and punter Matt Wile.

Both moves came as a surprise to many, but the bigger question is why the Vikings didn’t do this sooner.

By acting on this earlier, such as signing kicker Matt Bryant, the Vikings could have been out in front of the curve instead of spending the first two weeks of training camp learning what they already knew after last fall’s debacle. In addition, General Manager Rick Spielman spent the second straight year burning a fifth-round pick on a kicker that hasn’t attempted a kick in the NFL.

In addition, the special teams unit of the Minnesota Vikings could be completely turned over in the course of three months with Cutting, Vedvik and, if punter/holder Matt Wile is cut, whoever is the holder having zero experience in the NFL.

All of this seems like it could have been decisions made a long time ago, but it appears that Maalouf wanted to evaluate the personnel on hand before making that move. That’s a pretty gutsy decision considering the potential current state of special teams, but if he’s right, this purge could be what gets the Vikings’ field goal unit back on track.