Written By Sam Ekstrom
The Vikings doled out some cash this week – not to safety Harrison Smith – but to kicker Blair Walsh. The fourth-year kicker out of Georgia received a 4-year, $14 million extension that will lock him up through 2019 and pay him $5.25 million guaranteed. “I was happy for him, happy for the organization,” said special teams coordinator Mike Priefer on Tuesday. “I know it doesn’t matter what he makes. He’s going to come out and work hard. He is a pro, and he’s learned a lot and still has a lot of work to do and a ways to go in terms of earning that status of being one of the top kickers in the league. Does he have the talent? Yes. Is he on his way? I believe he is.”
Walsh is actually coming off his most inaccurate season. After making 35 of 38 field goals (92.1 percent) his rookie season, including 10 of 10 from 50 yards and beyond, Walsh made just over 74 percent of his kicks in 2014, the first season in which his eight indoor home games were replaced with eight outdoor games at TCF Bank Stadium, some of them below freezing. The swirling winds at the horseshoe-shaped stadium toyed with Walsh at times last season, including one game against the New York Jets, where he said the winds were worse than traditionally blustery Buffalo. “You’ve got conditions out there,” said Walsh on Sunday, “but you’re playing in the same conditions everyone else is. The way I look at it is you’ve just got to go prepare for it as much as you can, but at the same time you’ve got to be able to control what you can control.”
Priefer pledged confidence in Walsh, saying he didn’t think his kicker overthought kicks last year, rather just mishit a handful of attempts. He also added that two of Walsh’s blocked kicks were not the kicker’s fault.
Walsh also missed a 68-yard attempt in Detroit — a distance that’s never been made in NFL history.
Long snapper showdown
Trivia question: Who is the longest tenured Viking?
It’s not Chad Greenway.
It’s not Brian Robison.
It’s the long snapper Cullen Loeffler, entering his 12th season in purple.
But if the 34 year old wants to crack the roster, he’ll have to beat out 25-year-old Kevin McDermott, who most notably snapped for the San Francisco 49ers when they defeated Green Bay at Lambeau Field in the 2013-14 playoffs.
Priefer said in June he wants to see better rotation, location and velocity from Loeffler, whose poor snap in Week 16 of last season led to a game-winning safety by Miami. “I think he wore down a little bit,” Priefer said of Loeffler’s play late in the season.
Loeffler and McDermott are getting even reps with the first and second teams at practice. By all accounts, it’s one of the more civil head-to-head competitions you’ll find on an NFL squad. “[Cullen]’s doing a great job,” said Priefer. “Those two get along really well. I had a talk with both of them at the beginning of the spring and they’re both pros. Kevin has done this before. He’s come into camp and beat out a veteran in San Francisco, and obviously it’s new to Cullen … great human being, fine young man. He’s handling it like a pro. He knows it’s pro football and this competition is only going to make him better if he ends up being our guy.”
Priefer insists that Loeffler, as the incumbent, does not have any edge in the competition.
Getting Patterson going
It was a frustrated 2014 on many fronts for Cordarrelle Patterson, one of them being the kick return game. The second-year player saw his return yards per attempt drop from 32.4 in 2013 (first in the NFL) to 26.4 last year (seventh), largely because teams refused to kick to the explosive return man who scored two return touchdowns as a rookie.
Priefer said that while Patterson was limited in his chances, he needs stay even more focused on cashing in his opportunities. “I tried to tell him, ‘Hey, if you get that opportunity you need to be ready for it because there were times last year when he was frustrated and they did kick to him, he wasn’t ready and he didn’t hit the seam because he wasn’t fully engaged, and we got to the 20, 22-yard line.”
The Vikings will look to put a pair of agile return men at the halfback position in their return formation who can provide a threat if teams utilize the squib kick.
Rule change
With the extra point moving back to the 15-yard line, resulting in a 33-yard kick versus the traditional 20-yarder, the Vikings are gearing up for the challenge with more reps at that distance in practice.
Priefer was also asked if the longer attempt makes the kick more blockable for his PAT-block units. “Two years ago we blocked three PATs, last year we blocked a PAT. We’re pretty aggressive coming against teams with their PAT/field goal team. I think there may be more opportunities, but a 33-yard field goal is not a huge difference. It is different — you’re going to see the percentage go down a little bit, but we’re still gonna be aggressive because that’s who we are. The good thing is you can score two points off a block now. In the old days of the PAT, once the failure was evident, the play was over. Now it’s not.”
Sam Ekstrom is a staff writer for Cold Omaha at 105 The Ticket and a play-by-play broadcaster in Burnsville, Minn. Hear him on 105 The Ticket Sunday mornings from 8-11 a.m. on “The Wake Up Call.”