The highly-anticipated punt-off between Jordan Berry and Ryan Wright appears to be dead, with the Minnesota Vikings releasing Berry Thursday.
Vikings special teams coordinator Mike Daniels said earlier this week that there would be a “punt-off” in Saturday’s preseason finale against the Broncos.
“It’s almost like they’re carbon copies,” Daniels said of Berry and Wright. “It’s weird. One guy screams down an amazing punt and the next guy doesn’t feel that pressure and follows it up with a big punt. You look at it and I think both guys have been doing a great job throughout this camp and we’ll go back and check out the tape, look at the statistics we’ve been compiling and putting together throughout this entire training camp and see who the better man is but overall I think both guys have been doing a good job.”
Why the sudden change of heart? Evidence may be in the news that the Vikings also signed cornerback Tye Smith, who was waived as part of the first wave of cuts last week.
Why bring back a cornerback you just cut? It could mean an injury to a cornerback, or perhaps Andrew Booth Jr. isn’t recovering as fast as hoped from the ankle injury he suffered in Saturday’s game against the 49ers.
An injury in the secondary might’ve forced Minnesota to make the punter decision sooner than they originally planned.
Berry, 31, averaged a career-high 46.5 yards per punt last season, including 20 of his 77 punts inside the 20-yard-line. Only three punts went for touchbacks.
