As the Minnesota Vikings tried to tread through the deep end of the kicking pool since drafting Blair Walsh in 2012, one constant had remained – special teams coordinator Mike Priefer.

While the Vikings tried to re-sign Priefer after his contract ended following the 2018 season, he left for his hometown Cleveland Browns. Now, the Vikings have replaced Priefer with former Miami Dolphins assistant Marwan Maalouf, who is now tasked with critical decisions at many of the key positions on special teams.

Kicker Dan Bailey, punter Matt Wile and punt returner Marcus Sherels are all free agents. But with the kicker struggles the Vikings have endured since Walsh’s record-breaking rookie season, all eyes will be on that position, and Maalouf didn’t sound opposed to drafting yet another kicker.

“It all starts with the evaluation process. Right now, all things are on the table,” Maalouf said Thursday when officially introduced as the new coordinator. “We’re starting to look at draft kickers, free-agent kickers, and that’s something that I’ve had good luck with in the past. We’ve always had good kickers where I’ve been, and sometimes they haven’t had the best years as well, but we’ve always had options. I think the most important thing is to overturn every rock and find somebody that fits what we’re trying to do, whether it’s a veteran or a young guy.”

Walsh lasted 4½ seasons in Minnesota, but the end of his career was marred by inconsistency that was lowlighted by a badly missed 27-yard field goal in the 2015 postseason that would have given the Vikings a two-point lead with 22 seconds to play. Instead, they lost to the Seattle Seahawks by one point.

Since then, the Vikings have cycled through Kai Forbath, Walsh’s replacement who was released by Jacksonville earlier this week; 2018 fifth-round pick Daniel Carlson, who was 1-for-4 for the Vikings before his released, then went 16-for-17 for Oakland; and Bailey for the final 14 games of 2018.

A struggling kicker in Minnesota has been an all-too-familiar refrain, but it’s something Maalouf has dealt with before.

“I think it starts with what type of person he is. If he’s somebody that you’re going to help more by being more technical with, if he’s going to benefit from that, I think spending time with him first and seeing what type of guy he is,” Maalouf said. “You don’t want to over-coach, you want to know when to back off and when to approach him and maybe mention one or two things about his footwork or his technique, what his aiming points are and what he’s thinking about prior to the kick. A lot of things with football is muscle memory. You don’t want guys thinking. You want him to go react, be ready, and do their job.”

Bailey was 21-for-28 for the Vikings after replacing Carlson last year, but it wasn’t one of his more successful seasons in the NFL. When he came to Minnesota, he was the second-most accurate kicker in NFL history, but he kicked through an injury in 2017, his final season with Dallas, when he hit 75 percent of his field goals (the same percentage as in Minnesota last year). Prior to that, Bailey had never been below 84 percent in his first six NFL seasons and he produced three seasons hitting 93 percent of better.

Maalouf said he is still in the process of evaluating Bailey and why his consistency wasn’t as strong as it was from 2011-2016.

“I’m still kind of in the process of looking at him and studying what he’s done in the past,” he said. “I know he hasn’t been here long, so I don’t know if that has something to do with it or not. And just building that relationship with him and the operation is important too. That’s stuff that we’re looking at.”

While Priefer usually had good coverage schemes, his tenure in Minnesota was marred by inconsistent kicking. Maalouf said there are simple things he looks for in a kicker.

“I think the basic things – the flight of the football, rotation, just those things being the majority of it. His technique, how he approaches the ball, his mental state,” Maalouf said. “I think that’s important too. Ideally, we like football players who happen to kick and I think that if you find those type of guys, those are the ones that stick through with longer success.”

He mentioned Phil Dawson, who has been kicking since 1999 and doubled as an offensive lineman in high school.

The task for Maalouf will be turning around a fan perception that the Vikings have some sort of kicker curse on them. The kicking ills certainly marred Priefer’s Minnesota tenure and it will be up to Maalouf to flip the narrative with a fresh start.

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“The mental stuff starts with the evaluation process, spending as much time as you can with them before you happen to sign them. I think when you do that it really helps the other stuff out,” he said. “These guys are adults when you get them, so there’s not much you can change. There’s things you can tweak, and being around some very good kickers during my career, I was able to learn from them. Those are the guys you really learn from – Adam Vinatieri, Phil Dawson, Matt Stover – that’s 60 years of experience right there. I probably took more notes being around those guys than anybody.”