The Vikings go through kickers like the Browns go through quarterbacks. The only difference is that the Browns keep landing on duds while the Vikings found the second-most accurate kicker in NFL history available in free agency.
So while everyone is excited that rookie Daniel Carlson has been replaced by an incredibly reliable kicker like Dan Bailey, one has to wonder why the heck the Cowboys didn’t keep their 30-year-old kicker in the first place.
The reason?
“Well I think we got real comfortable with how [Brett] Maher was kicking, what kind of offseason he had,” Cowboys owner Jerry Jones said two weeks ago on 105.3 The FAN in Dallas.
“But we, as you well know, felt that we could really get the same strategy, same impact that a kicker like Bailey gives us, we felt we could get that from another guy who fit our cap, fit our team better.”
Bailey was in the middle of a seven-year, $22.5 million contract with Dallas while Maher, their current kicker, was on a rookie deal worth just north of $400,000.
Basically, the difference between Bailey and Maher wasn’t significant enough to pay Bailey as much as he was making, so he got clipped from the roster.
Jones also noted that Maher was “very consistent” in practice and he thought he’d be just fine in games.
Sound familiar? It’s pretty much the same reason the Vikings cut Kai Forbath and gave the job to Carlson, who proved that he wasn’t able to transition his awesome practice kicks to real life game action.
It’s also been reported that Bailey had a bunch of offers that would’ve paid him handsomely but he was holding out for a chance to sign with a contender. That’s what he gets in Minnesota, and in return the Vikings get a kicker who probably won’t shrivel when the lights get bright.
You can find all of BMTN’s Minnesota Vikings 2018 season content in our Flipboard magazine, which you can read and follow below.
