Though rookie Will Reichard won the kicking competition with relative ease, the Vikings still have a punting competition on their hands. It features the incumbent Ryan Wright, who struggled at times last season, taking on the challenger Seth Vernon, who has turned heads throughout training camp at TCO Performance Center.
Both players should get a chance to prove themselves on Saturday afternoon at U.S. Bank Stadium when the Vikings host the Las Vegas Raiders in a preseason game.
Asked how he planned to split up the reps between Wright and Vernon, special teams coordinator Matt Daniels noted that rotating every other punt is probably the best way to go about it. That reduces the chances of either player getting a majority of the reps if the Vikings punt a lot during a particular stretch.
“The idea is to give each guy equal opportunity,” Daniels said. “It’ll be good throwing different situations at guys and seeing how they respond to them.”
The main reason the Vikings have instituted a punting competition in training camp is because Wright left something to be desired last season. He had a very hard time keeping the ball out of the end zone, finishing with a touchback percentage of 11.9 percent, which was among the worst in the NFL.
There were a few times last season that the Vikings had the option of going for it, attempting a long field goal, or trying to pin an opposing team deep in the shadow of their own goal post.
“We just didn’t show up in those situations,” Daniels said. “That’s something we’ve been really focusing on.”
As for Vernon, he comes to the Vikings after spending some time with the Atlanta Falcons earlier in his career.
“He’s got unbelievable leg talent,” Daniels said. “I think for him it’s about becoming better with situations. He’s raw in terms of, ‘What type of situation is it? What type of ball do I truly need to hit?’ Because each situation requires guys to hit a specific ball.”
There’s also the layer of which player is going to be holding for Reichard on field goal attempts moving forward. Most of the reps have gone to Wright so far in training camp with Daniels vowing to let Vernon do some holding in the very near future.
“I’m kind of doing a disservice to him,” Daniels said. “I need to give him more opportunities to allow him to gain some confidence and develop a good chemistry with Will being that holder. Obviously punting is important. I also think being a holder for a rookie kicker is of the utmost importance.”
It will be interesting to see how everything plays out this weekend.
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