The 4-Week Viking Completes His Journey Back
Former Viking Parker Romo has completed his journey back into the NFL, at least in terms of being on an active roster. Making that reality somewhat painful for Minnesota fans could be that Romo getting onto Atlanta’s 53-man roster has coincided with his strong performance for the Falcons in Week 2.
Tom Pelissero of The NFL Network offered the news: “The #Falcons are releasing veteran kicker Younghoe Koo, sources tell me and @MikeGarafolo. Atlanta signed Parker Romo to the active roster after his perfect debut and now is moving forward without Koo, the third-leading scorer in franchise history.”
Former Viking Parker Romo Officially on a 53-Man Roster
Currently, Minnesota is getting some excellent kicking from Will Reichard.
The sophomore has impressive abilities, made evident in his capacity to drill field goals that flirt with 60. He’s sitting on a very impressive 100% conversion rate for his field goals and extra points, but those are numbers that will need to withstand a larger sample size before people get too excited. After all, Reichard has been called up for just 4 field goals alongside 1 extra point.
Romo, meanwhile, has done more damage than Reichard in just a single game of action.
In Week 2 alone, Romo showed off what he could do by drilling 5 field goals alongside his extra point. Notably, most of the kicks came from shorter distances, but Romo did have a field goal split the uprights from 54. Combine the wow-factor of drilling one from deep alongside the consistency of nailing a half dozen kicks and Atlanta evidently felt as though Romo was the best option.
Back in 2024, Parker Romo did some kicking for the Vikings, filling in for the injured Will Reichard.
The brand new Falcon was a fill-in for four weeks, performing well within that time. He went 11/12 on his field goals, working out to a rock-solid 91.7% conversion rate. His long came from 55. More concerning, perhaps, is that he went 7/8 on his extra points. Continuing by drilling just 87.5% of his XP attempts wouldn’t have been very encouraging, but it’s possible that the single miss would have remained so — a single miss — had he been given the chance to keep kicking in Minnesota.
That opportunity didn’t arrive.
Reichard, chosen in the 6th of the 2024 NFL Draft, was always going to be the K1 as soon as health allowed.
The end result was a topsy-turvy journey for Mr. Romo. He joined the Patriots’ practice squad in December of 2024 before working through another summer battle. He got cut in August.
Atlanta added him to their practice squad ahead of the Week 2 game, elevating him to the roster for Sunday Night Football. The performance under the lights alongside whatever has been done on the practice field has convinced the decision makers in Atlanta to give him a full spot on the active roster.
Note, as well, that Romo’s NFL journey already contained a few stops prior to the Vikings. He worked for the Saints, Lions, and Bears prior to finally getting a shot in the regular season with the Vikings. In other words, Romo has demonstrated strong resilience to get back into a spot where he’s the K1 for a team.
Next up for the Falcons and Parker Romo is a battle against the Panthers. Meanwhile, Will Reichard’s Vikings will be taking on the Bengals.
Solid kicking from both specialists would help each NFC team climb up to a 2-1 record.
Editor’s Note: Information from Pro Football Reference and Over the Cap helped with this piece.
