Inside The Vikings

Vikings Replacement Kicker Options: Tristan Vizcaino, Taylor Bertolet

The Vikings have a number of options when it comes to potentially replacing Dan Bailey.

Will Ragatz

Dan Bailey has missed seven of his past nine kicks, nearly costing the Vikings a win against the Jaguars and directly hurting them with an 0-for-4 performance in a frustrating loss to the Buccaneers on Sunday.

After a historically bad day, it's entirely possible that Bailey has attempted his last kick in a Vikings uniform.

"At this point in time, we’re not really worried about feelings anymore," Mike Zimmer said. "I’m really disappointed. I have a lot of faith in him, I have a lot of confidence in him. But these last two weeks have not been good."

"I don’t know right now," he added when asked about the possibility of replacing Bailey. "He kicked good during the week this week. So we’ll just have to make a decision and go with it. Like I said before, I’ve had tons of confidence in him. He’s had a very good year. He’s had a couple bad weeks now. But you know, we can’t throw away 10 points."

The Vikings are just 6-7 and no longer occupy a playoff spot in the NFC, but their season isn't over yet. They have three games left to potentially make up a game on the Cardinals to sneak into the seventh seed.

If that's going to happen, they need to have a kicker they trust to go out and get the job done. That could be Bailey, but it might also need to be someone else. It's possible the veteran gets cut early this week, but that would require the Vikings to take on over $4 million in dead cap money. At the very least, Bailey is going to have some serious competition this week in practice.

The Vikings' backup kicker is Tristan Vizcaino, who is on the practice squad. He was signed several weeks ago after former PS kicker Chase McLaughlin was poached by the Jaguars to their active roster. Given all of the COVID-19 protocols that are required to get outside players in the building with new teams, Vizcaino is the most obvious candidate to potentially replace Bailey.

Here's what you need to know about Vizcaino. He spent four years at the University of Washington, but wasn't the Huskies' kicker until his senior year (he actually was their punter as a junior). During his senior season in 2017, Vizcaino made 12 of 19 field goals and 48 of 51 extra points.

The 24-year-old went undrafted and didn't spend 2018 on an NFL team. He kicked for the Bengals in the 2019 preseason, making four of seven field goals and all three extra points.

Vizcaino has spent time with the Bengals and Cowboys since then, but has never kicked in an NFL game.

Update: Vizcaino has been released from the practice squad, suggesting the Vikings may stick with Bailey.

The Vikings could also look to bring in a veteran free agent like Brett Maher, Adam Vinatieri, Chandler Catanzaro, or Giorgio Tavecchio. Stephen Hauschka would've been an option but he retired this year.

Update: the Vikings brought in Catanzaro for a tryout on Tuesday, making him the second kicker to try out this week. Taylor Bertolet was the first. Catanzaro could be signed to the practice squad soon.

Or they could simply stick with Bailey and hope that he can figure something out mechanically this week and get his confidence back. Bailey was once the most accurate kicker in NFL history and has a long track record of success. He was excellent in 2019 and had only missed two field goals and one extra point all year prior to last week. Zimmer said on Monday that he hasn't made the decision yet.

It'll be interesting to see what happens on that front this week and who ends up kicking for the Vikings next week against the Bears.

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Will Ragatz
WILL RAGATZ

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