Vikings Talent Drives a Nail in the Coffin for 1 NFL Debate
After Week 18, the debate around the NFL should be dead. Kicker Will Reichard deserves a spot on the All Pro team. Anything less than being named on the second team would be football malpractice from the voters.
The hyped Vikings talent has received a lot of love around the Twin Cities. Minnesota is a franchise that is unusually familiar with kicking heartbreak. Worse yet, have recent years featured poor outcomes in the draft. Seeing both issues taken care of in a single person — Reichard being an excellent draft selection while being deadly as a specialist — arrives as a massive win for the Vikings.
Young Vikings Talent Will Reichard as an All Pro
All-Pro long snapper Andrew DePaola has seen enough to be impressed.
The veteran spoke to the Minnesota media after the season concluded. DePaola chatted about his kicker: “Seeing Will become who we all knew he was going to be — just one of the best kickers in the NFL — was really special for me as a player.” Not too long afterwards, DePaola suggests that he’s looking for Reichard and Ryan Wright to “get a few awards.” So, too, did DePaola clarify that the season from the K1 is “awesome” and unlike anything he has seen in his career.
In the NFL in 2025, only two kickers surpassed Reichard for field goal percentage. Both of Nick Folk and Eddy Piñeiro went 28/29 on field goals, resulting in identical 96.6% conversion numbers. No doubt, sizzling numbers.
Just behind those two is Will Reichard, who has a 94.3% conversion rate after going 33/35. Note that both of those misses came from 50+ (with a kick possibly being hindered by a rogue cable wire). Reichard’s 11 successful kicks from 50 yards or beyond easily outmuscle the 7 kicks from 50+ that Folk hit and the 6 kicks from 50+ that Piñeiro hit.
Consider, as well, that Piñeiro only went 34/38 on extra points (89.5%). Both of Folk and Reichard were perfect in this area. The lone difference is that Reichard drilled 31 XPs whereas Folk was down at 22. At the risk of being a touch obvious, the larger the sample size the more impressive the perfection becomes.
Oh, and Reichard’s long of 62 yards on field goal outpaces the other two, both of whom saw their longs for the season in the high 50s.
Over on ESPN, Bill Barnwell slotted Will Reichard into a personal All Pro team published on January 1st.
After giving kudos to Brandon Aubrey of the Cowboys, Barnwell argues that “Reichard has actually been slightly better this season per advanced metrics.” The ESPN writer goes on: “He has attempted eight fewer field goals than Aubrey, but Reichard has gone 30-for-32, whereas Aubrey is 35-for-40. Even with the slightly reduced volume, Reichard has made 6.7 more field goals than expected (per NGS), compared with 6.5 for Aubrey, as his average field goal make has been from a yard further out. Reichard has also been perfect on extra points. Vikings fans endured about a decade of frustrating kickers, but Reichard has broken that trend.”
Aubrey’s FG% came in at 85.7% by the end of the season.
For whatever it’s worth, both of Reichard and Aubrey play for teams that play home games inside of a stadium, stabilizing the conditions for a good portion of the kicks. Removing bad weather makes kicking easier, which works against Reichard within the All Pro debate.
Will Reichard will turn 25 on January 9th. He appears to be the kicking solution for many years to come even if the NFL All Pro voters don’t recognize his sizzling season.
