There Is a Verdict on the Vikings Kicker for 2022
The Minnesota Vikings didn’t have too many notable success stories from 2021 inside a season that spurred the terminations of the general manager and head coach.
But after a floundering start — particularly with a brutal Week 2 missed kick — kicker Greg Joseph’s bounceback was one the best and most redemptive stories from 2021.
And now Vikings fans will experience Greg Joseph, the sequel.
The tender on Joseph is $2.43 million, making him the 17th-highest-paid kicker in the NFL as of the morning of March 14th. The $2.43 million encapsulates yearly salary and cap hit.
Joseph connected on 33 of 38 field goals in 2021, even drilling a couple of game-winners after his infamous miss against the Arizona Cardinals in Week 2. He also converted 36 of 40 extra points.
Notably, Joseph knocked through seven field goals of 50+ yards on nine tries — a respectable percentage for a kicker. For perspective, Harrison Butker of the Kansas City Chiefs, one of the top kickers in the business, was also seven for nine on field-goal attempts of 50+ yards in 2021.
The second act for Joesph comes at a price where Minnesota could still bring in another kicker for competition. Indeed, that could just be a Mike Zimmer tactic — a man who notoriously wasn’t fond of kicker woes — but at $2.43 million for Joseph, the option is sensible.
When a Vikings kicker does anything on the field or via contractual extension, it’s big news as the franchise has been historically snakebitten by kicker performance. The Vikings 1998 storybook season was undone by untimely kicking, and ever since, a defacto curse has followed the organization. Or so it seems.
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Joseph, though, will get a crack at continuing his redemption tale. After he missed the game-winner down in the desert last September, he insisted the kick wouldn’t define him — music to Vikings fans’ ears because a certain kick from 2015 did define the remainder of Blair Walsh’s career.
Joseph will be 28 years old when the regular season starts and is expected to sign the tender.
Dustin Baker is a political scientist who graduated from the University of Minnesota in 2007. His YouTube Channel, VikesNow, debuts in March 2022. He hosts a podcast with Bryant McKinnie, which airs every Wednesday with Raun Sawh and Sally from Minneapolis. His Viking fandom dates back to 1996. Listed guilty pleasures: Peanut Butter Ice Cream, ‘The Sopranos,’ and The Doors (the band).
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