A New Kicker Is Trying to Overcome the Vikings Curse
Janik Eckardt
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There are some Vikings curses ongoing. One is the famous Kirk Cousins curse. No team has ever won the Super Bowl in a season after beating Cousins. The Bills never had a chance once they dramatically fell to the Vikings last year. Minnesota’s passer is 0-6 in games against the eventual Super Bowl champions.
A much more devastating curse for Vikings fans is the kicking curse. Whoever is named kicker of the purple team suddenly forgets everything about the sport and loses all his skills. That phenomenon is close to what Charles Barkley endured when his talent was stolen in Space Jam before Michael Jordan and the Looney Tunes got it back.
A New Kicker Is Trying to Overcome the Vikings Curse
We all know the stories of kickers who have tried to beat the curse, but nobody managed to win. It is proven that it has nothing to do with the color purple, as Justin Tucker is the best kicker ever and definitely a future Hall of Famer. His Ravens also wear purple.
Former Viking Daniel Carlson is a good example. He was so good in college that former general manager Rick Spielman drafted him in the fifth round in a heroic attempt to end the curse. However, Carlson missed field goal after field goal, and the Vikings released him after only two games for the club. He later signed with the Raiders and is back looking like a superstar on his own Hall of Fame path. The stories of Blair Walsh and Gary Anderson will not be described in detail here.
Greg Joseph attempted to trump the curse in the last couple of seasons with shaky results. The kicker joined the Vikings in the 2021 off-season and has been the team’s kicker ever since. In only his second game with the team, Joseph missed a game-winning field goal attempt from only 37 yards out in a loss to the Cardinals. However, Joseph totally redeemed himself with seven successful game-winning kicks after that, an outstanding number.
Joseph hit the game-winning field goal against the Giants on Christmas Eve from 61 yards, the longest kick in franchise history by five yards. He has been absolutely fantastic in those late-game situations.
The number of extra points he misses, meanwhile, is concerning, as he missed 6 of his 46 attempts. Only Cairo Santos and Joey Slye had more trouble with the short kick last season. Special teams coach Matt Daniels certainly hopes for an improvement in that area.
Joseph signed a one-year contract worth $2 million after his last deal expired. The Vikings re-signed their free agent. He could be cut after training camp, but the team would have to eat a $1.7 million dead cap hit and only save $300,000.
However, if the new guy in town is a lot better, they won’t care. But who is that new guy? The Vikings reportedly signed undrafted rookie Jack Podlesny, the kicker from Georgia. He played a lot of football in the bright lights.
Podlesny hit 182 of 184 career extra points and 61 of 74 field goals. He led the nation in points last season with 151 and was fifth in 2021. The kicker led the SEC in points in each of the last two seasons. He signed a deal for $15,000 guaranteed.
Joseph beat out Gabe Brkic last offseason in a similar competition. Podlesny now has a new chance to unseat the incumbent kicker. He joins the rookie class of Jordan Addison, Mekhi Blackmon, Jay Ward, Jaquelin Roy, Jaren Hall, and DeWayne McBride.
There’s a New QB in Town
Janik Eckardt is a football fan who likes numbers and stats. The Vikings became his favorite team despite their quarterback at the time, Christian Ponder. He is a walking soccer encyclopedia, loves watching sitcoms, and Classic rock is his music genre of choice. Follow him on Twitter if you like the Vikings: @JanikEckardt
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