Former Viking Wins the Big Job in Green Bay
The Green Bay Packers’ summer kicker battle ended on Tuesday, and former Minnesota Vikings kicker Greg Joseph prevailed.
Former Viking Wins the Big Job in Green Bay
Joseph won the job outright as Green Bay cut ties with last year’s rookie Anders Carlson.
NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero tweeted, “Kicker change in Green Bay: The Packers cut Anders Carlson, per source.”
The Packers also have an undrafted free-agent kicker named Alex Hale on its roster, but he is expected to miss the 53-man roster cutdown on Tuesday afternoon. All indications are a starting kicker job for Joseph in 2024, one season removed from Minnesota.
If Anders Carlson sounds familiar, it’s because he’s the younger brother of Daniel Carlson, a former Vikings kicker, as well, who was dropped by the team in the 2018 season after a horrendous kicking performance at — you guessed it — the Green Bay Packers.
Carlson has since kicked for the Las Vegas Raiders and played marvelously for six seasons. That Carlson, in fact, has morphed into one of the best kickers in NFL history per field goal accuracy.
Joseph played for Minnesota in the last three seasons, securing the kicker job longer than most amid the last decade of Vikings football. He struggled overall in 2022 and 2023 but racked up five game-winning field goals in 2022, a chief component in actionizing the Vikings’ NFL-record-setting 11-0 record in games decided by one score or less that season.
Minnesota’s kicker won five football games for the team notoriously snakebitten by kicker-related tomfoolery.
Yet, in back-to-back seasons, 2022 and 2023, Joseph ranked as a bottom-six NFL kicker per overall field goal percentage. The man also blundered with extra points. Vikings fans “appreciated what they had” in Joseph, scarred from kickers of yesteryear who let them down in crucial, pressure-cooked moments.
But as a matter of improvement, Minnesota strived to find a kicker who could do it all: consistently hit game-winning kicks, normal ones, and drill extra points. The club may have found that in rookie Will Reichard, who has hit the spot this summer with nearly impeccable kicking.
This stat is the main reason that the Vikings preferred a new solution in Reichard:
Greg Joseph,
Field Goal % Ranking,
Last 2 Seasons:
2022 = 28th
2023 = 28th
Of course, Joseph in Green Bay for the 2024 season and perhaps longer sets up the framework for “revenge” scenarios. That is — at least twice per season, Joseph will kick against the team that employed him for three seasons and then dropped him earlier this offseason.
Joseph turned 30 about three weeks ago.
Dustin Baker is a political scientist who graduated from the University of Minnesota in 2007. Subscribe to his daily YouTube Channel, VikesNow. The show features guests, analysis, and opinion on all things related to the purple team, with 4-7 episodes per week. His Vikings obsession dates back to 1996. Listed guilty pleasures: Peanut Butter Ice Cream, ‘The Sopranos,’ Basset Hounds, and The Doors (the band). He follows the NBA as closely as the NFL.
All statistics provided by Pro Football Reference / Stathead; all contractual information provided by OverTheCap.com.
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