Wild new kicker metric confirms what Vikings fans already knew about Will Reichard

If one were told before the 2025 NFL season that the Minnesota Vikings would have just one First-Team All-Pro selection, it's safe to say that most would assume that honor would go to wideout Justin Jefferson. But that's obviously not how things played out for the Purple & Gold, as Jefferson had the worst statistical season of his six-year career.

Instead, that First-Team nod went to kicker Will Reichard, who was phenomenal in his second professional season, connecting on all 31 of his extra-point attempts and hitting 33 of 35 field-goal tries, including a franchise-record 62-yarder in Minnesota's Week 3 win over the Cincinnati Bengals. The Alabama alum also became the first player in NFL history to hit four field goals of 59 yards or longer in a single season.

Reichard was particularly dominant down the stretch in the Vikings' five-game winning streak to close out the season, going a perfect 12-for-12 on field goals in Weeks 14 to 18, three of which went for 50 yards or more, and also hitting the mark on all 12 of his PATs en route to being named NFC Special Teams Player of the Month for December/January, thus becoming just the seventh in franchise history to earn the honor.

So, how is it again that he didn't earn a trip to the Pro Bowl?

The All-Pro nod certainly helped soften that blow, and Reichard can now also celebrate the fact that an all-new kicking metric proves that he was the best player at his position during the 2025 campaign.

Will Reichard of the Minnesota Vikings would have been the top-ranked player at his position under a new kicking metric had it not been for that "phantom" cable

For the last few months, FanSided's NFL Senior Director, Adam Fromal, has been hard at work creating a new and innovative way to rank kickers, a metric he's calling Kick Value Added (KVA).

While there's much more to it than what we're about to provide, here's how Fromal breaks down KVA in the simplest possible manner:

"The core idea is simple: Instead of treating all makes and misses equally, KVA measures how much value a kicker actually adds (or costs) relative to league expectations from the same distances across the field. A long-distance conversion shouldn’t be weighed the same as a chip shot, and a miss doesn’t carry the same meaning everywhere on the field.

"A score of 0.0 serves as the breakeven point (pure averageness), with positive numbers indicating value added and negative numbers indicating value lost. Each miss drags someone further down, while each make (aside from the true chip shots) pushes them toward higher numbers, which is why you'll often see low-volume kickers clustered together."

While there are plans to roll out KVA on an all-time scale down the line, Fromal gave us all a taste of what's to come by applying his formula to the 43 kickers who attempted at least one PAT or field goal during the 2025 season.

And while Ka'imi Fairbairn of the Houston Texans took the top spot with a point total of 15.4259, Fromal explained that Reichard, who finished second with 13.5633 points, would have been No. 1 had it not been for that "optical illusion" nonsense against the Cleveland Browns in London.

"Shockingly not a Pro Bowler, Will Reichard was a deserving All-Pro nonetheless after putting together a magnificent sophomore season. 

"He still has yet to misfire on a single extra point in his career (69-of-69) and, during the 2025 season, only missed on his three-point tries when he was lining up pretty far from the uprights (51 and 53 yards). Talk about shoring up the few cracks in his profile that existed after he posted 4.7236 KVA as a somewhat-erratic rookie out of Alabama. 

"Reichard didn’t exactly shoulder an easy workload for the Vikings this year. He drilled 11 kicks from at least 50 yards, including three 59-yarders and a 62-yard bomb against the Cincinnati Bengals on Sept. 21 that curled just inside the right upright but cleared the crossbar with room to spare. 

"Controversially, Reichard may have added a 12th make from 50-plus had it not been for a camera wire that may have subtly altered the path of his 51-yard attempt during a Week 5 game in London. The NFL officially ruled that the Skycam cable did not affect the kick, but good luck finding a Vikings fan who feels similarly. For the record, he’d have finished the year at 16.5633 KVA and taken over the top spot in the rankings had the result been different."

We'll be very interested to see where Reichard ranks among the Vikings' all-time greats once KVA expands.