Should the Kicking Woes for the 2022 Vikings Be a Concern?
Christian Stoinev
|
The Minnesota Vikings and their fans are feeling pretty good right now going into their Week 11 matchup vs. the Dallas Cowboys. Coming off a huge road victory against the Buffalo Bills it seems like this team has everything it needs to contend for a Super Bowl. However, the kicking woes for the 2022 Vikings have continued.
Greg Joseph had a pretty good year last season and there was confidence coming into this year that his success would continue, but that hasn’t been the case. He had a costly missed extra point this last week vs. Buffalo and it was his 4th extra point missed this season. He has also struggled on field goals, making 13/18 so far this season.
To be fair, all of his misses are from over 50 yards where he has only made one of his six attempts from there, but as a Super Bowl contender, you want to be able to rely on the kicker to do his job when called upon, especially a team like the Vikings that seems to always be in close games.
[brid autoplay=”true” video=”1188816″ player=”26281″ title=”8%20Big%20Storylines%20for%20Cowboys%20at%20Vikings” duration=”981″ description=”Dustin Baker chats about the eight items to watch this weekend during Cowboys at Vikings.” uploaddate=”2022-11-18″ thumbnailurl=”https://cdn.brid.tv/live/partners/19439/snapshot/1188816_th_1668797336.jpg” contentUrl=”//cdn.brid.tv/live/partners/19439/sd/1188816.mp4″ width=”16″ height=”9″]
I don’t think the Vikings need to panic about their kicking situation, but it is a situation to monitor. Joseph has been relatively reliable but with a more aggressive offense he isn’t going to get as many opportunities for field goals, so his opportunities become that much more important.
The misses of 50+ yards are tough kicks, but the extra points should be succeeding at a much higher rate. Joseph is one bad game away from putting pressure on the Vikings to evaluate his production.
One situation to monitor if it comes down to it is what’s going on with the LA Chargers. They lost their starting kicker Dustin Hopkins to a hamstring injury earlier this season and his replacement, Cameron Dicker, has come in and been perfect! In his three games that he’s played (two with LA, one with Philadelphia) he’s gone 7-7 on field goals and 5-5 on extra points.
Hopefully for the Vikings sake they don’t have to pay attention to the Chargers kicking situation, but when Hopkins comes back in the next couple weeks, the Vikings might want to give Dicker a look if the Chargers let him go and Joseph doesn’t take advantage of his opportunities.
