Jun 9, 2021; Minnesota Vikings helmets on the ground at OTA at TCO Performance Center. Mandatory Credit: Brad Rempel-USA TODAY Sports
Minnesota Vikings’ roster battles are hot and heavy at training camp right now, with the regular season 41 days away.
But one might be over if kicker Parker Romo’s tweet tells the whole story.
“Never know when your last snap is coming. 48 LH 15-20 MPH. Thank you Vikings. Might be back sooner than later … I will be available tomorrow at 4PM ET,” Romo tweeted Monday.
The tweet suggests that Minnesota released or will release the specialist, and his 4 pm EST is likely a notice to the rest of the league when he’ll be available for new employment.
The team’s other kicker, Will Reichard, is the favorite to win the kicking job and might be the last man standing as early as late July. Minnesota drafted Reichard in April, about six weeks after adding Romo, and it was always unlikely that Reichard would be cut this summer after a stellar career at the University of Alabama.
The Vikings welcomed Romo to the depth chart in March, and at the time, he felt like the sole solution. However, the Reichard addition totally changed everything on that front. In fact, it might be weird if Reichard didn’t win the job outright, especially after a wonderfully successful career at Alabama and his status as the first kicker off the board in the draft.
Romo attended three colleges — Central Kansas (2016), Tulsa (2018), and Virginia Tech (2019-2021) — and was a teammate of Christian Darrisaw at Virginia Tech. He was awarded All-XFL Team honors with the Brahmas in 2023 and also finished as that league’s field goal leader.
This is Romo’s football resume to date, though he’s never kicked in a regular season NFL game:
Minnesota cut ties with Greg Joseph this offseason after three seasons of service, and Joseph promptly signed with the Green Bay Packers, where he’s competing for the starting job against Anders Carlson and James Turner.
In May, the Vikings’ social media team unveiled a behind-the-scenes draft documentary featuring footage of general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah, his staff, and Minnesota’s coaching staff during the draft. Among topics discussed in the 18-minute show, Adofo-Mensah mentioned the importance of getting his kicker, Reichard.
Adofo-Mensah asked his counterparts on Day No. 3 of the draft, “If the kicker and [Michael] Jurgens are there, do you go kicker, assuming Jurgens might be there later? Because the kicker is supposed to be gone by now. It’s more about trying to get both players; who do you have to take sooner? I think the kicker will go sooner than Jurgens. I mean, we have our targets. We do all this work for this. Let’s get our targets that we want.”
His comments didn’t make it sound like getting a kicker was negotiable. And in hindsight, Romo might’ve been the kicking contingency plan if Adofo-Mensah didn’t “get his guy” in the draft.
Romo shouldn’t have an overly challenging task in finding another summer audition, especially after a team like the Detroit Lions lost Michael Badgley to injury last week.
Romo will turn 27 next month.
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.