Minnesota Vikings: Blair Walsh Prevails Early in Preseason

It was a move many fans and media members questioned, including this guy, but it’s a move that looks good through the first two preseason games.

The move I am referring to is the selection of kicker Blair Walsh in the sixth round of the 2012 NFL draft, which coincided with the release of 15-year veteran Ryan Longwell.

Through the preseason, Walsh is 7-of-8 on field-goal attempts, missing a 49-yard attempt against the Buffalo Bills Friday—a field goal he needs to make at Mall of America Field given that it was a fairly centered attempt.

Walsh has been fantastic on kickoffs, showing the ability to consistently kick the ball through the end zone. In a division which features the likes of Devin Hester and Randall Cobb, that’s vital.

But again, this is only the preseason, and Walsh has kicked in two very friendly environments: Mall of America Field (where he’ll play eight games) and San Francisco’s Candlestick Park (which had beautiful weather conditions).

Come the regular season, he will kick in Seattle (where rain is very likely), Green Bay and Chicago (where it’s very windy and cold, especially in early November and late December when Minnesota’s there).

Walsh has looked like a viable NFL kicker thus far, but don’t forget about his senior year at the University of Georgia when Walsh made 60 percent of his field-goal attempts (21-of-35).

Prior to his forgettable senior season, he was a finalist for the Lou Groza Award, the award given to college football’s best kicker, in 2009 and a semifinalist in 2010.

Walsh recorded 412 points during his four-year career (most in SEC history and second-most in NCAA history), set the school record for extra points made (184) and consecutive extra points made (118), and was named to Georgia’s Team of the Decade.

Those are games when teams need a reliable kicker when the offense stalls. Longwell was a reliable, battle-tested kicker.

His accuracy declined in 2011, as he made 78 percent of his kicks (22-of-28), which was beneath his career average of 83.2 percent. But between 2008 and 2010, Longwell made field goals at a clip better than his career average.

The 2011 campaign was the lowest his field-goals-made percentage had been since 2005, his last season in Green Bay.

Although Longwell had been an extremely accurate kicker, his leg strength was waning in recent years. And with the NFL moving kickoffs up to the 35-yard line, Longwell still struggled to boot the ball out of the end zone—something Minnesota needs to do given the kick returners in the division.

It’s tough to keep two kickers on a roster, so the move made sense from the front office’s point of view, as it was comfortable with Walsh. But the fanbase and media weren’t quite as sold.

But so far, so good. But there’s plenty of time left for Walsh to either disappoint or continue to impress.