Latest Vikings Signing Sets Up Another Position Battle
Over the past few days, the Minnesota Vikings brought aboard 24 players to their roster.
They selected seven players during the 2024 NFL Draft, and then, they also signed 17 undrafted free agents. On Tuesday afternoon, Minnesota made it an even 25 as the Vikings decided to sign another punter, thus officially creating a position battle with Ryan Wright.
Latest Vikings Signing Sets Up Another Position Battle
That punter is Seth Vernon, who last appeared at the NFL level with the Atlanta Falcons during the preseason back in 2022. Aaron Wilson of KPRC2 reported the move, tweeting, “#Vikings signed Seth Vernon.”
Vernon spent his collegiate years at Portland State where he was the punter for three seasons from 2019-2021. Over those three seasons, he totaled 93 punts and averaged 44.2 yards per punt. His longest punt came during the 2019 season, which he boomed 66 yards.
The punter then went undrafted in 2022 before he signed a three-year, $2,562,000 contract with the Atlanta Falcons, which included a $2,000 signing bonus, $2,000 guaranteed, and an average annual salary of $854,000.
However, Vernon would not make the final roster ahead of the 2022 season, and he is yet to make his NFL regular season debut. He now will compete with Ryan Wright for the punting job in Minnesota, who has held that job for each of the past two seasons.
Wright was one of the best punters in the league during the 2022 season, but his production saw a bit of a drop off in 2023. Wright landed 32 of his 73 punts inside the 20-yard-line in 2022 and had just a single touchback.
2023, however, saw Wright boot just 17 of his 59 punts inside the 20 (a drop of 15%), and he had seven punts result as touchbacks. Of course, there could be a couple different reasons for this, but Wright certainly wasn’t as effective this past season.
As a result, Minnesota is bringing in competition for him to see if either Vernon can outperform him, or Wright ultimately lives up to the challenge.
Along with the punting battle, the Vikings also will have a kicker battle this year after signing John Parker Romo in free agency and selecting Will Reichard in the sixth round of the 2024 NFL Draft.
Editor’s Note: Statistics for this article were found via ESPN and Pro Football Reference.
Josh Frey is a Class of 2020 graduate of The College of Idaho and managing editor of PurplePTSD.com. When he’s not writing about the NFL, Josh enjoys running, gaming, or rooting for the Milwaukee Brewers and Bucks. Check out his Twitter account: @Freyed_Chicken.
