Greg Joseph Will Return to the Vikings on a Team-Friendly RFA Tender

Flashback Friday: Vikings Slip Past Lions in 2021
Jerome Miron-USA TODAY Sports.

After a missed game-winning kick against the Arizona Cardinals in week 2, there were some worries that Greg Joseph would not be able to fix the kicking woes of the Minnesota Vikings. Following that disappointing game though, the Vikings kicker was one of the very best in the entire league. Over the Vikings final 15 games, Joseph made 30/34 of his field goal attempts and 30/33 of his XPs. Additionally, his seven made attempts from 50+ yards ranked third in the league.

There is an underrated part of his game that may go overlooked, though. Among kickers that attempted more than 20 kickoffs, Joseph had the highest touchback percentage of anyone at 80.9%. This was a problem with the 2020 Vikings under Dan Bailey that often led to opponents getting some great field position to start their drives. Bailey’s touchback percentage was just 63.9%.

With all this in mind, Joseph proved to be one of the best kickers in the entire NFL. However, news has come in that he is expected to return to the Vikings on the restricted free agent tender of $2.44 million. Of course, kicker contracts often go overlooked in the grand scheme of things, but with the Vikings current situation, all cap space is good cap space, and this contract is extremely team-friendly for a talented player.

If Joseph is to come back on the $2.43 million, that would currently rank 17th among NFL kickers–sandwiching him between Jason Sanders’ $3.15 million cap hit and Dustin Hopkins’ $1.92 million. This is notable for a player who played closer to the level of Robbie Gould, who will have a cap hit that is more than twice as large at over $5.5 million, per Spotrac.

Overall, the Minnesota Vikings get a great deal on a talented kicker who lived up to his promise that the miss in Arizona would not derail his season. It certainly did not, and it earned him a new deal going into 2022.

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