First Vikings Rookie Wins Starting Job

The Minnesota Vikings are in the final stretches of Kwesi Adofo-Mensah’s third offseason in charge of the personnel decisions. His draft class featured an exciting duo with first-rounders J.J. McCarthy and Dallas Turner. Bringing them to the Twin Cities wasn’t cheap, as he had to fire up trades for both of them. However, they have the talent to become franchise staples for years to come as the successors for departed four-time Pro Bowlers Danielle Hunter and Kirk Cousins.

First Vikings Rookie Wins Starting Job

Both McCarthy and Turner will push the starters, but veteran Sam Darnold and free agent signings Jonathan Greenard and Andrew Van Ginkel remain in the starting lineup ‒ for now.

Fellow rookie Will Reichard, meanwhile, has beaten his competition and will enter the 2024 campaign as Minnesota’s new placekicker.

The Vikings moved on from Greg Joseph after three years. Despite showing his clutch gene various times, he was consistently one of the worst kickers in the entire league per extra point and field goal percentages, so the divorce was a no-brainer for Adofo-Mensah. Selecting a kicker doesn’t fit the GM’s analytical background, but he did it regardless.

He was visibly fired up in the organization’s annual draft video about the prospect and getting extremely anxious to miss out on him. Later, he was quite enthused when he acquired the Alabama standout specialist position in the sixth round.

Reichard joined former XFL kicker John Parker Romo in the specialist meeting room. He showed his powerful leg in the 2023 XFL season but lacked Reichard’s consistency, which is why he hasn’t attempted a kick in the NFL in his two-year career. It didn’t even take the rookie two weeks of training camp until the Vikings decided to part ways with the older kicker.

Consistency remains the keyword when talking about Reichard. He hit an outstanding 295 of 297 extra points in his five-year stint with the Crimson Tide and made 84 of 100 field goals en route to becoming the NCAA’s all-time leader in points scored, although his field goal percentages improved in the last two years.

The concern about him has been his leg strength. His longest field goal in college was a 52-yarder. Of course, Alabama was rarely stopped in general, in addition to frequently going for it on fourth downs.

Lance Zierlein (NFL.com) wrote about the kicker in his pre-draft evaluation: “Highly experienced in high-level matchups inside the SEC and in the College Football Playoff. Reichard kicks with consistent lift. He’s as close to automatic as you will find under 40 yards and can make 50-plus yard kicks with a high success rate but has average leg strength by the standards of today’s NFL. Reichard needs to prove he can plant a higher percentage of kickoffs as touchbacks, but his accuracy and talent should give him a strong chance at being drafted in the middle rounds and becoming a starting NFL kicker.”

The good news is that he has already put those concerns to rest by firing up various long field goals, including a viral video of a practice kick that was good from 58 with plenty of room to spare and might have been good from 70.

Following Romo’s exit, it’s officially Reichard season in Minnesota, and Vikings fans hope he is the guy to finally solidify the nerve-wracking spot that has caused them to suffer various heartbreaks.

Besides the preseason, his first opportunity to convince his fans of his skills is scheduled to be on September 8 when the Vikings face the New York Giants for the first time since they met in the 2022 playoffs.

Editor’s Note: Information from Sports Reference CFB helped with this article.

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Janik Eckardt is a football fan who was drawn to the sport by Adrian Peterson’s excellence. He is a walking soccer encyclopedia, loves watching sitcoms, and has an affinity for Classic rock. His active Twitter page can be found here. His work can be found on PurplePTSD, VikingsTerritory, and DraftHuddle.