Viktor
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- Mar 19, 2019
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"I don't know right now. He kicked good during the week this week," Zimmer said. "So, we'll just have to make a decision and go with it. I like the kid a lot. 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 and things like that. It's not just Dan Bailey," Zimmer added. "We gave up a 50-yard throw because a couple guys weren't in the right place. You can't do that either. If you guys want me to fire guys for making a mistake here, a mistake there, then we wouldn't have any players. Let's not put this all on Dan Bailey."
The Vikings aren't built this year to blow teams out, so every point matters, as well as the momentum shift and advantageous field position a miss can provide.
Current COVID-19 policies make it more difficult to bring in players from outside the building quickly.
The team does have a kicker on the practice squad in Tristan Vizcaino, and the Vikings could choose to do a standard elevation to the active roster similar to what they did with long snapper Andrew DePaola before signing him. Such a move would give the Vikings an opportunity to look at Vizcaino in a game while giving Bailey some time to work through things.
Did Bailey's missed kicks severely hurt the team in Tampa Bay? Of course. Do I believe they were the sole reason for the loss? No.
Bailey isn't a young kicker who is struggling in his first season. He's a 10-year veteran who has had two poor games in a row. Even with the three missed field goals Sunday, Bailey is now 246 of 286 on field goals in his career. That's good for 12th all-time in NFL history.
He's proven to be reliable in his career, even if the past two weeks have been subpar. With only three regular-season games left, let's hope Bailey turns it around to close 2020 and then evaluate where we're at once we get to the offseason.