It seems like the Vikings have decided on a kicker for the 2021 season

On Monday, the Minnesota Vikings waived rookie kicker Riley Patterson, leaving Greg Joseph as the only kicker left on the team’s roster.

If someone was going to come up with some positives to take away from the performance of the Minnesota Vikings this past Saturday in their preseason opener against the Denver Broncos, the play of kicker Greg Joseph would likely make the cut.

The Vikings only managed to score six points in their blowout exhibition game loss to the Broncos and all six were put on the board by a pair of field goals by Joseph.

Minnesota must have liked what they saw against Denver because they made a move on Monday that seems like an indication that they’ve made a decision about who will open the regular season as their kicker.

Greg Joseph appears to be the kicker for the 2021 Minnesota Vikings

As they attempt to reduce their roster size from 90 to 85 by Tuesday, the Vikings departed with wide receiver Blake Proehl and kicker Riley Patterson on Monday.

Both Proehl and Patterson were waived with injury designations which means they will both end up on Minnesota’s injured reserve list if they go unclaimed on the waiver wire.

So with Patterson being let go, it seems like the Vikings are going to roll into Week 1 of the 2021 season against the Cincinnati Bengals with Joseph as their kicker.

Since this is Minnesota we’re talking about, it will be interesting to see if Joseph is able to last the whole season in purple and gold.

Vikings head coach Mike Zimmer is known to have a short leash when it comes to kickers, so it probably wouldn’t take much for the team to look for someone new this year if Joseph delivers a few poor performances.

Even though Minnesota appears to have selected their kicker for the 2021 campaign, one can assume they will still be keeping an eye on any kickers that get released before the regular season begins.