Could Gabe Brkic Steal The Vikings’ Kicking Job?
Cole Smith
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The Minnesota Vikings added competition to their kicking room on Thursday. They signed former Oklahoma kicker Gabe Brkic to possibly supplant incumbent Greg Joseph.
As a whole, Joseph had a pretty solid 2021 season in Minnesota. However, much of the solid play came after he missed a game-winning field goal from 37 yards out to defeat the Arizona Cardinals in Week 2.
Most undrafted free agents are longshots to make the team. But kickers have just one player to compete with, giving them a better chance. Does Brkic have a legitimate shot to take Joseph’s job? Let’s find out.
The Numbers
In three seasons as Oklahoma’s full-time kicker, and one game as a redshirt freshman, Brkic connected on 57/69 kicks and 159/160 extra points. Of course, extra points in college are kicked from the three-yard line. But the consistency is still reassuring.
Brkic was 10/14 on kicks from 50-plus in college, a 71% clip. Joseph is 8/11 in his four-year NFL career, nearly a 73% mark. One thing to consider here, though, is the wider hashmarks in college football. This leads to some awkward angles for kickers that they won’t face in the NFL. So a side-by-side comparison based solely off of their numbers isn’t an apples-to-apples comparison.
But it didn’t always affect Brkic negatively, as his career-long in college was a 56-yard field goal against Tulane. He kicked the ball from the right hashmark, and the ball went through on the inside of the left goalpost. In fact, he connected on two other kicks from 50-plus in the game.
In both 2020 and 2021, Brkic was 20/26 kicking, nearly a 77% rate. This is comparable to current Cincinnati Bengals kicker Evan McPherson’s final season at Florida. In 2020, McPherson was 17/22 kicking, a 77.3% rate. He then connected on 84.8% of his kicks during his rookie season before becoming the Bengals’ postseason hero, sending them to the Super Bowl with a 31-yard field goal in overtime.
What The Experts Say
Brkic was worthy of being drafted, as Lance Zierlein of NFL.com projected him as a seventh-round selection or “priority free agent”. One weakness that does show up on his kicks is that some of his longer kicks push or pull. While these kicks usually go through, this movement can affect kick-to-kick accuracy and could be a reason he was only 16/23 on kicks between 30-49 yards between the 2020 and 2021 seasons.
I contacted Eric Piccione who runs the website “Kickers Of Earth“, to ask him for a breakdown of Brkic. Piccione is a former Division I kicker, and he uploads videos throughout the year on numerous kickers across college football and the NFL, breaking down their mechanics.
Piccione had the following to say regarding Brkic’s strengths:
“The amount of height he gets is top-tier. It’s rare to see that at any level. It’s better to have a kicker with that kind of height since blocks will rarely happen assuming the line does their job. His range is confidently 55 yards which covers 95% of in game scenarios. He’s got a really fast leg and his height allows him to leverage the kick even further especially with good clean contact. Great mentality and approach to his position. He’s got a good head on his shoulders which is more important than a strong leg.”
Piccione then shared the following regarding areas that Brkic needs to work on:
“His swing is punchy and goes left pretty quickly. This paired with poor contact can lead to shanks, pushing the ball right and wide left, curving kicks. Elite NFL kickers have barely any draw to it since the swing and contact are so pure. In order to stay in the NFL, a few tweaks will be needed in order to make sure the ball doesn’t curve as much, ideally, with a slightly adjusted swing and body posture. Overall, with those adjustments I’m confident he will do well in the NFL and am hoping for a long career. [It] might take him 1-2 years to find his footing but [he] will definitely be a contender from day 1.”
For more breakdowns from Piccione, you can find him on his YouTube channel.
Conclusion
Gabe Brkic should be in the middle of a legitimate kicking competition with Greg Joseph once training camp arrives. Brkic has enough raw ability to go along with a productive collegiate career, and Joseph has had an unspectacular pro career to this point.
The Vikings also didn’t use any draft capital to bring Brkic in. This differs from when the team used a fifth-round pick on Daniel Carlson in 2018 and pitted him against incumbent Kai Forbath for a job that everyone knew was going to Carlson. And, of course, Joseph may have kicked for the team in 2021, but the current regime has no ties to him.
After eight years of Mike Zimmer hating his kickers, let’s see how Kevin O’Connell handles his kicking situation. It’s a position that has bit the franchise for years. Maybe Brkic is the guy that can bring long-term stability.
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