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Greg Joseph was a slightly below average kicker in three seasons with the Vikings. You might remember him making some clutch kicks — particularly during that charmed 2022 season — and those should not be discounted.
But overall from 2021-23 in his three seasons kicking with the Vikings, Joseph made 82.2% of his field goals and 90.3% of his extra points. The NFL average for kickers during that span? 85.4% on field goals and 94.6% on extra points. Joseph basically missed one more field goal and two more extra points per year than the average kicker.
That might not sound like much. But it is not something that the Vikings (correctly) felt the need to hold tightly to at all costs.
And so they let Joseph reach free agency, whereupon he agreed to a deal this week with the rival Packers -- something I talked about on part one of Wednesday's Daily Delivery podcast.
Now? The search for kicking competence and stability resumes for the Vikings for another chapter. You can go back deep into the team's history to see the many iterations of the Vikings foraging for a kicker, but for now let's just go back to the journey of the last decade — which started in earnest after Blair Walsh missed wide left from 27 yards on the frozen turf in the 2015 playoffs.
Walsh was a mess in 2016, missing four field goals and four extra points in just nine games before being replaced midyear by Kai Forbath.
The Vikings stuck with Forbath through a decent 2017 season, then ditched him in 2018 to draft Daniel Carlson — brother of Packers incumbent Anders Carlson, against whom Joseph will presumably compete in Green Bay. The win-or-bust Vikings of 2018 cut Carlson after just two games and a bunch of misses, signed Dan Bailey (who was also shaky in 2018) and stuck with him for a strong 2019 season and a poor 2020 campaign. Joseph won the job after that and has held it for three years.
The Vikings have proved they can do worse than Joseph. Their kicking in 2016, 2018 and 2020 was worse than anything Joseph has done.
But they can also certainly do better. Continuity is important in the kicking game, but not as much as a confident feeling that your kicker is going to put it through the uprights.
With Joseph, the Vikings knew what they were getting. A little too often, especially on extra points, they didn't like it.
Here are four more things to know today:
*The next Vikings kicker won't just have to worry about field goals. The new kickoff rule in the NFL will make ball placement beyond just kicking it out of the end zone a priority.
*The return of Mara Braun and Sophie Hart in a WNIT victory is a reminder of the good thing the Gophers women's basketball team had going before their injuries.
*Patrick Reusse is a truth-teller. Pitching depth is a major concern for the Twins.
*Vikings writer Ben Goessling will join Thursday's podcast to talk about all things purple. Between now and then, you will get another podcast episode — this one a special edition previewing the Twins 2024 season that begins tomorrow.
