Minnesota Vikings 2010s All-Decade Team: Who made the cut?

Special Teams

Blair Walsh (K), Chris Kluwe (P), Cordarrelle Patterson (KR), Marcus Sherels (PR)

Special teams was the usual source of anxiety for the Vikings, but believe it or not, one of the better parts of the unit was Blair Walsh. Fans will obviously remember Walsh for his “Wide Left” miss against the Seattle Seahawks in 2015 and subsequent meltdown, but before that he was a pretty good kicker earning All-Pro honors in his rookie season of 2012 and hitting on 85.2% of his field goals prior to the 2016 season.

While Walsh held down the kicking position, Chris Kluwe was a master at punting. The Vikings would eventually switch to Jeff Locke as his successor (which may have been due to Kluwe’s views off the field), but Kluwe was still good at his job averaging 44.5 yards per punt from 2010 to 2012.

Kick returner was a little difficult for the Vikings as they had two explosive talents carrying that torch. Percy Harvin was tremendous for the Vikings at the early part of the decade with three touchdowns and a 28.2 yards per return average, but he was bested by Cordarrelle Patterson, who took five kickoffs to the house and averaged 30.4 yards per carry. The Vikings have not returned a kickoff for a touchdown since Patterson departed following the 2016 season.

Finally, the punt returner spot belonged to Marcus Sherels. The Rochester native is the franchise leader in punt return yards (2,480), touchdowns (5) and ranked eighth in yards per return (10.8) while spending the entire decade with the Vikings.