Vikings Kickers Are Not The Problem
Reid Johnson - PurpleReignNews.com
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Let’s Reid between the lines…
The Vikings have employed more than four kickers in five years. Each has come to the team strong and then crumbled in Minnesota to the point where fans now believe in a kicking curse. Dan Bailey is one of the most successful kickers in NFL history who is perfectly healthy and getting good snaps, yet he is now having a complete meltdown as a Viking. The problem must not be with the kickers themselves, but with coaching and team culture.
It is unclear which link in the chain is broken. The special teams coordinator would be the natural place to look, but kicking problems have happened with two different coordinators now.
One constant through these years of struggle is Head Coach Mike Zimmer. It’s possible he unintentionally instills fear into his kickers, but he isn’t known to be very involved with special teams, as is the case with most head coaches.
To diagnose the problem, the Vikings should bring in an outside specialist like a sports psychologist. According to the Vikings official website, the team does not have one on staff. This is very surprising for a professional team, as these specialists are known to be huge assets.
The Vikings have consulted with outside sports psychologist Dr. Cindra Kamphoff in the past. If you’ve ever seen Adam Thielen making a flushing motion, it’s from Kamphoff teaching him to “flush” memories of bad plays down the toilet. You can’t go so far as to credit Kamphoff for Thielen’s success, but clearly her input hasn’t hurt. Perhaps the team could benefit from someone like her looking at the kicking situation.
It would be a bold idea, but maybe someone like Kamphoff could also reach out to the team’s former kickers and ask for some input. They might not care to help, but a little monetary incentive from the Vikings might get them talking. There’s a chance each would say something consistent that points to the underlying problem. At this point, it’s worth a shot.
Whether it’s a sports psychologist, former players, or another outsider, the Vikings need a non-coach to analyze the special teams department and team as a whole. Unless there truly is a kicking curse in Minnesota, there should be a solvable culture or coaching issue. Until this is fixed, any kicker should be afraid to come play for Minnesota.
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