Who will be the Vikings kicker for the 2021 season?
By Adam Patrick
With the Minnesota Vikings releasing Dan Bailey on Tuesday, who will end up as the team’s kicker for the 2021 season?
Kickers and the Minnesota Vikings go together like ketchup and vanilla ice cream. The Vikings parted ways with their most recent kicker, Dan Bailey, on Tuesday and the search for a new guy to come in and miss multiple game-altering kicks will begin yet again.
Currently, the only kicker on Minnesota’s roster is Greg Joseph. The Vikings signed Joseph back in February and the thought by most was that he would compete with Bailey this summer for the starting job.
However, the Vikings didn’t want to pay Bailey the amount of money he was scheduled to make this year, so they let him walk before any competition was even able to begin.
Where will the next Minnesota Vikings kicker come from?
Now that their search for a new kicker is officially underway, Minnesota has a few paths they can take to find the next guy for the role.
Joseph could possibly be who the Vikings go with. But Minnesota shouldn’t just be handing the job to a guy who hasn’t attempted a field goal in the NFL since 2018.
Even if Joseph is in the running to be the Vikings’ new kicker, which he appears to be, competition for the role should still be brought in this offseason.
To find someone who can compete for Bailey’s old role, Minnesota can look to free agency or this year’s NFL Draft. A free-agent kicker should be the preference since the last two times the Vikings drafted a kicker, it resulted in a disaster.
Minnesota could also take a completely different approach to finding Bailey’s replacement and attempt to trade for an established veteran this year. Guys like Justin Tucker of the Baltimore Ravens or Harrison Butker of the Kansas City Chiefs are two kickers that would be worth the Vikings giving up assets to acquire.
Whatever Minnesota’s approach is to finding a kicker this offseason, it has to be different than what they’ve done in the past.
With Bailey’s departure, the Vikings will now have their fifth different Week 1 kicker in the last six years when the 2021 season begins. This is not a stat Minnesota should be proud of.