In a week in which the Minnesota Vikings fired their offensive coordinator, one of the more interesting nuggets to be revealed came from special teams coordinator Mike Priefer.

The Vikings have had more than their share of kicker problems since Priefer became the special teams coordinator in 2011. Back then, the Vikings had the relatively reliable Ryan Longwell, who made 22 of 28 field goal tries.

The following year, the Vikings drafted Blair Walsh in the fifth round, the highest the franchise has ever taken a kicker. His distance on field goals was intriguing, but Walsh didn’t have a good senior year at Georgia. Even so, the Vikings drafted him and his rookie year was phenomenal.

Overall, Walsh was 35-for-38 on field goals and a record-setting 10-for-10 on those of 50 yards or more. In 2013, he was still 26-for-30 but only 2-for-5 from 50 and beyond.

“If you remember, Blair Walsh was a 60 percent kicker his senior year, and he went to the Pro Bowl his rookie year,” Priefer said. “He had a phenomenal year. Second year was pretty good, even though he got banged up. And then what happened with Blair …”

Vikings fans, unfortunately, know exactly what happened next. Or at least the results.

He was 26-for-35 in 2014 before the big blowup in 2015, when he was a very solid 34-for-39, including 6-for-8 from 50 or more, but all that mattered was “wide left.” It’s a phrase Vikings fans have heard far too often, referring to Walsh’s unbelievably wide left 27-yard attempt with less than a minute remaining in a 2015 wild card playoff game against the Seattle Seahawks. If Walsh makes it, the Vikings almost surely advance with a 12-10 win on four field goals from Walsh.

Instead, he missed the final attempt and was vilified by fans, who attack him relentlessly for weeks on social media.

But Priefer revealed his opinion on what caused Walsh to fall apart from there, eventually being replaced by Kai Forbath in the middle of the 2016 season.

“What happened with Blair, in my opinion, is that he lost a lot of weight. He was trying to be more fit, and when he lost the weight, he lost the strength,” Priefer said. “He lost the strength, he changed his technique, and then he wasn’t as successful. That was something I tried to stop and didn’t get it stopped. That was part of it.”

When Walsh started the 2016 season 12-for-16 and also missed four his 19 extra-point tries, head coach Mike Zimmer had enough of the kicker that contributed to the first “L” in Zimmer’s postseason head-coaching career.

Walsh was cut. Forbath was in.

While Forbath also irritated the head coach by missing three of 14 extra points in 2016, he was a perfect 15-for-15 on field goals, earning him another shot in 2017.

Forbath had a decent enough season last year, going 32-for-38, but missed five of 39 extra points. He also hit a 53-yard field goal late in the fourth quarter of the playoff game with the Saints to give the Vikings the lead. Of course, after losing the lead, that game is mostly remembered for Stefon Diggs’ “Minneapolis Miracle” touchdown with no time remaining rather than Forbath’s potentially game-winning 53-yarder.

“That would’ve been the narrative had we not had the Minneapolis Miracle. I’m glad we did, obviously, we won the game, but we had two huge field goals in the fourth quarter,” Priefer said. “People would’ve remembered those forever, but they get lost in the shuffle. That’s fine, that’s great, that’s football.”

Forbath’s career with the Vikings ended in training camp this year when the Vikings trumped the Walsh draft pick in 2011 by selecting Daniel Carlson even higher in the 2018 draft. Carlson, too, had a big leg, but given the Walsh history and the expectations the Vikings had entering the season, Zimmer had little patience for a rookie kicker potentially derailing another season.

When Carlson missed all three of his field goal attempts in Week 2 at Green Bay, including a 35-yarder wide right as time expired in overtime for a tie, his fate was sealed on an 0-for-3 day. He also missed a 48-yarder wide right in the final two minutes of the first half and a 49-yarder on the first possession of overtime.

After starting his career 1-for-4 in the first two weeks with the Vikings, he was released. The Oakland Raiders signed him and he has hit 10 of 11 field goals for them, crediting a more compact approach to ball before kicking in Oakland. He was also named the AFC Special Teams Player of the Week after hitting three second-half field goals, including a 35-yard game winner with no time left, in a 23-21 win on Nov. 18.

Priefer said Carlson’s recent success doesn’t surprise him.

“Some of the things, I know they’ve been talking about his technique and all that stuff, that’s what we did here. He was really long when he got here, and we worked really hard all spring and all summer long at making him a compact approach,” Priefer said. “I think he had one bad game and it was more mental than physical. He’s a really good kicker and I’m happy for him. I’m proud of him. I’m not one of those guys that’s gonna be spiteful [like] ‘He let us down against Green Bay; I hope he has a terrible career.’ That’s not who I am. He’s a good kid and he works hard. I wish him the best, unless we play them, of course.”

Priefer believes he understands the “craft of kicking better than most coaches,” but he admits he isn’t a mental coach. With young kickers like Walsh was and Carlson is, combined with a head coach that doesn’t seem to have great affection for kickers, Walsh and Carlson may have needed some mental guidance.

After sending Carlson on his way, the Vikings turned to veteran Dan Bailey.

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“I think dealing with a young kicker like Daniel was different than dealing with a veteran kicker like Dan, to be quite honest with you,” Priefer said. “When Dan first got here, I wanted to learn his technique, I wanted to learn how he’s been successful in his career, and then we try to harness that and try to get as close to that as possible in practice and then on into the games. Those are the things that we talk about, but I’m not a mental coach. If a guy needs a mental coach, he needs to go elsewhere. In fact, I’d be the last guy – you can ask my kids that – I’d be the last guy to be a mental coach. I’m a little emotional, get a little fired up, but at the end of the day, if that’s what a young man needs, then he’s got to find that outside the building, so to speak. I’m here to coach football.”

But even Bailey, an eight-year veteran of the NFL, is having the worst year of his career with the Vikings, connecting on a career-low 69.9 percent of his kicks. He has made 16 of 23 field goals. In his first six seasons, his lowest percentage was 84.4, and he dipped to 75 percent last year, when he was dealing with a groin injury.

“Certainly [I’m] not overcoaching Dan Bailey, and it’s the product of the whole battery of working together and being more consistent, and that includes the snapper, the holder and the kicker,” Priefer said. “Not to make excuses, they haven’t worked together long enough, but neither has Carlson out in Oakland. He’s just handled it a little bit better right now, and so we’ve just got to go out and make kicks down the stretch and do what our team asks us to do to help us win games.”