Special K (and P and LS and the rest of the special teams unit)

[SemperFeist]

Kluwe nails it. 

[SteelKing728]

While Kluwe espouses some very weird, nonsensical views, he nails it with the ST talk.

[vikingsrule]

1 hour ago, SemperFeist said:

Kluwe nails it. 

That's just life as an NFL kicker. For how little they actually play, they make a lot. You have to be good to handle the few moments when you take the field. Kickers don't seem to last long in one spot.

[vikesfan89]

Was Carlson worried about getting cut before missing 3 kicks?

[SemperFeist]

2 hours ago, vikingsrule said:

That's just life as an NFL kicker. For how little they actually play, they make a lot. You have to be good to handle the few moments when you take the field. Kickers don't seem to last long in one spot.

Plenty of kickers miss kicks, but don’t get cut. Nor do they have the coach publicly criticizing them during the game, and after.  And if he’s saying it in public, you know dang well that he’s saying it in private.

Plenty of players have made mistakes, but Zimmer doesn’t seem to go after them in the same manner that he has with kickers. He’s been a part of the problem. 

[SemperFeist]

2 hours ago, vikesfan89 said:

Was Carlson worried about getting cut before missing 3 kicks?

Can’t say what was being said behind closed doors. But was it worth cutting him? He seemed to figure it out pretty quick. It sure would be nice to have a 90% kicker on a rookie contract. 

[vikesfan89]

1 hour ago, SemperFeist said:

Can’t say what was being said behind closed doors. But was it worth cutting him? He seemed to figure it out pretty quick. It sure would be nice to have a 90% kicker on a rookie contract. 

I'll guessing they didn't want to have him shank the game winner in the playoffs

Or miss out on Dan Bailey

[vikingsrule]

2 hours ago, SemperFeist said:

Plenty of kickers miss kicks, but don’t get cut. Nor do they have the coach publicly criticizing them during the game, and after.  And if he’s saying it in public, you know dang well that he’s saying it in private.

Plenty of players have made mistakes, but Zimmer doesn’t seem to go after them in the same manner that he has with kickers. He’s been a part of the problem. 

I blame Blair Walsh.

[swede700]

If you're going to regularly miss 35 yd kicks, you deserve to get cut.  And there's a lot less pressure when you're going from a team that is competing for a division title to one that is competing for the #1 overall pick.  

If you can't handle criticism, then you need to find a different line of work.  I just think it's a deflection to pass blame onto Zimmer for the failures of a kicker to make kicks.  I don't think it's just coincidental that Blair Walsh and Kai Forbath haven't really found steady work since they left.  I wouldn't be surprised to see Daniel Carlson fail eventually too, when the Raiders actually are in a real pressure situation.  

[vike daddy]

Kluwe did not nail it.

make your kicks and the coach will love you.

[SemperFeist]

2 hours ago, vike daddy said:

Kluwe did not nail it.

make your kicks and the coach will love you.

Where was the public criticism of the QB after interceptions or fumbles? Where was the public criticism of the defense when they missed tackles, and gave up long drives? 

Other kickers have missed kicks, yet I don’t remember their coaches saying the things that Zimmer has. 

Its easy to say “just do your job”, but it becomes a lot harder to do your job when the guy who is supposed to have your back is berating you, and has a history of pulling the plug for a mistake. 

[SemperFeist]

4 hours ago, swede700 said:

If you're going to regularly miss 35 yd kicks, you deserve to get cut.  And there's a lot less pressure when you're going from a team that is competing for a division title to one that is competing for the #1 overall pick.  

Regularly? It was 1. And the team was in the 2nd game of the season. 

 

4 hours ago, swede700 said:

If you can't handle criticism, then you need to find a different line of work.  I just think it's a deflection to pass blame onto Zimmer for the failures of a kicker to make kicks

The Vikings have seen multiple kickers all face the same issues, including the most accurate kicker in NFL history. Zimmer and Priefer are the constants. It’s not deflection to question whether the coach who has not been shy about criticizing his kickers is part of the problem. 

[swede700]

20 minutes ago, SemperFeist said:

Regularly? It was 1. And the team was in the 2nd game of the season. 

 

He was far more sketchy than just 1 kick.  He had regularly struggled once Forbath was cut...even in those instances that he made.  It seemed like once he had "won" the job in the preseason, then everything fell apart.

And there really had been no issues with the kicking position until Blair Walsh missed the 27-yd kick....which was the end of Zimmer's 2nd year.  I also didn't hear much criticism coming from Zimmer regarding Forbath last year...in fact, he defended Forbath on multiple occasions.    

Edited January 28, 2019 by swede700

[SemperFeist]

3 minutes ago, swede700 said:

He was far more sketchy than just 1 kick.  He had regularly struggled once Forbath was cut...even in those instances that he made.  It seemed like once he had "won" the job in the preseason, then everything fell apart.

I don’t think “regularly” means what you think it means. 

Carlson won the job after the Jaguars game in the preseason. Yes, Carlson had a bad game against Seattle going 0/2, but he also followed that with a 100% game against Tennessee, and another 100% game against San Francisco. 

He then had a bad OT against Green Bay, and the team gave up on him. Carlson then went to Oakland and proceeded to make 94% of his field goals and 100% of his extra points. 

Meanwhile, the Vikings signed the most accurate kicker in NFL history and managed a whopping 75% of their field goals and 96% of their extra points. 

 

[swede700]

I'm not going to argue with you over the definition of "regularly" because we have different interpretations of the amount of time that has to pass in order to determine what is "regular."  But, it was clear that he was struggling with his kicks, yes, even on the ones he made and he could not be counted on to correct it quickly.  I won't comment on his performances in Oakland, as I did not watch their games, but the circumstances were far different, as I indicated. 

Now, maybe something will change since Priefer won't be here any longer, but I find it hard to place blame on a head coach for criticizing him.  In the end, it's his job to make his kicks.  The head coaches' job is to evaluate the results because, in the end, he gets evaluated on his results, which is Ws and Ls.  It's the kicker's job to seek out ways to fix his issues, not to seek his head coach's sympathy and approval. 

Whether that's going to Priefer and asking for some assistance (which we don't know whether he did or not), or spending extra time with Wile/Quigley and McDermott to work out the issues on the snaps/placements, that's something he should have done just as WRs spend extra time on the Jugs' machine, or the QBs spend extra time working on timing with their WRs. 

The one thing I will place the blame on with Zimmer/Priefer is just automatically thinking Wile could hold for the kicks.  It wasn't something he had really done, so they shouldn't have automatically put him in that position.  I personally wish they would go back to the days when the backup QB would hold for kicks. But, when they got rid of Quigley, they got rid of their experienced holder.  That's unfortunate and probably led to some of the issues, but hopefully, Wile will be a better holder this season because of it.