The Minnesota Vikings are signing kicker Greg Joseph according to multiple reports on Tuesday.
Kicking has never been a strength for the Minnesota Vikings during Mike Zimmer’s tenure as the team’s head coach. Since 2016, the Vikings have had a total of nine different kickers maintain a spot on their roster or practice squad with four of them attempting at least one regular-season field goal.
Well, that number can now be increased to 10 after multiple reports on Tuesday revealed that Minnesota will be signing kicker Greg Joseph.
After Dan Bailey struggled in 2020, most assumed the Vikings would bring in some kicking competition this offseason, and that is exactly what they’re doing with Joseph.
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Most recently, Joseph was a member of the Super Bowl champion Tampa Bay Buccaneers. He didn’t appear in a game for the Bucs in 2020 as he spent the majority of his time on the team’s practice squad.
Joseph’s last action in an actual regular-season game came back in 2019 when he was with the Tennessee Titans. During that season, he appeared in five contests for the Titans (including three playoff matchups), and he made all 19 of his kicks (18 extra points and one field goal).
During the 2018 campaign, he appeared in 14 games for the Cleveland Browns. With the Browns in 2018, he converted 17 of his 20 field-goal attempts and 25 of his 29 extra-point tries.
At the very least, Minnesota has taken the necessary steps to try and improve their kicking situation heading into the 2021 season. After Bailey’s poor performance in 2020 though, the Vikings didn’t really have any other choice than to bring in some additional kicking competition this year.
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There were some games this past season that could’ve turned out very differently for Minnesota if not for Bailey missing a bunch of his field goal and extra-point tries. With jobs on the line in 2021, the Vikings cannot afford to have something like this happen again.