Wondering what this is all about? Here’s the intro post.

Previous posts:

QUARTERBACKS

LINEBACKERS

WIDE RECEIVERS

DEFENSIVE LINE

OFFENSIVE LINE

TIGHT ENDS

DEFENSIVE BACKS

RUNNING BACKS

While kickers, punters and long snappers tend to fall by the wayside, they still touch the ball multiple times a game. From that angle, they’ll always be worth covering, and teams still use camp competition to make sure their specialists are up to snuff.

K Kai Forbath

We’re pretty familiar with Kai Forbath now, but his momentum changed quite a bit in 2017. Coming into Minnesota, he was a stop-gap that had journeyed through four different NFC teams before landing here. But he won a hotly contested battle against Marshall Koehn, and stayed with the Vikings throughout the season. If it does turn out to be the end of his run in purple, he’ll have left quite the legacy, including what is probably the best field goal kick in Vikings’ history.

As usual for Kai, he faces competition from a young gunner with a big leg. Forbath vs Carlson will get plenty of run, as Vikings fans tend to obsess over kickers. Forbath had a rough extra point season in 2017, which is what he’ll have to improve upon to maintain his hold on the job. It’s pretty clear what the team sees in Forbath, it’ll just come down to how good the kid is, and whether or not that pushes him past the veteran.

K Daniel Carlson

Daniel Carlson’s kicking story started at Northern Alliance Church in Colorado Springs. After he and his family moved back from Sweden, a football coach wanted to know if the soccer standout could kick a field goal. Over time, he got good enough to be recruited to the SEC When Carlson committed to Auburn, his beet-red Alabama family was forced to adjust to their kin playing for a rival. But they warmed up, as Carlson excelled for the Tigers, including several makes against their Crimson Tide. That got him hyped up in the draft process, where the Vikings traded up to lock him in.

Carlson, unlike most 5th round picks, is in a one-on-one battle for his spot on the team that drafted him. He has to start out his career better than the moderately consistent Kai Forbath, or he’ll be cut. It’s tough to stomach the release of a 5th round rookie, but certainly not unheard of. Carlson has high expectations to live up to from his decorated college years. Should he transition to the NFL and keep that consistency, he can lock himself in for years to come.

P Ryan Quigley

Quigley had a difficult NFL career, persevering through multiple injuries and hopping from team to team. In particular, it was a struggle to work through the lull of action after getting cut by the Bears after the 2012 season. But still, ‘Quigs’ would get up at 6 A.M. and work out at a park in South Charlotte every day until he got that call. Eventually, the Jets did call, and Quigley bounced through New York and Arizona before signing with Minnesota before 2017. When he got to Minnesota, he was the less exciting of two punting candidates, but managed to outdo Taylor Symmank and his huge leg. The Vikings were largely happy with Quigley’s performance, and thus declined to pick up another punter this offseason.

Quigley won’t have any competition in camp, so he’ll largely work to warm up, get his leg under him and get into season shape during the course of the preseason.

LS Kevin McDermott

The McDermotts have put two kids into the NFL, Kevin, and Buffalo Bills tackle Conor. Both of them went through UCLA, but Kevin’s road was much less gilded. He had to walk on to the Bruins, and became close to his eventual teammate Jeff Locke. He also went undrafted (as most long snappers do), and the team that signed him had a ten-year mainstay blocking his path to the roster. But Cullen Loeffler faltered, and Kevin McDermott excelled. He’s had a happily uneventful stay in Minnesota since the 2015 season.

McDermott almost had competition coming into camp from Nick Dooley, a rookie out of UTEP, but Dooley was released after rookie minicamp in favor of one of the tryouts. McDermott, like Quigley, will be able to comfortably ramp up to speed for the 2018 season.

As for my roster prediction, most of it is fairly straightforward. The real decision points come in at a few key spots across the roster, and I’ll break those down. But first, the whole kit and kaboodle:

RB: While Mike Boone’s wide receiver experience made him an awkward running back prospect, his kick return experience goes a long way. Roc Thomas may be a better pure running back, but vision issues are going to translate to the NFL more severely than generic inexperience will.

WR: I’m going with Tavarres King’s veteran presence over Cayleb Jones. Jones had a good preseason mostly propelled by one good preseason game against the Miami Dolphins in 2017. He’ll have to keep up that level of play to beat out King, and that’s a tall task. .

OL: It sounds like Tom Compton is moving over to tackle, which would replace Aviante Collins. Though, Collins showed out nicely in 2017 and would earn a practice squad slot. The Vikings like to keep the most versatile linemen, which is a principle that fuels these decisions.

DE: I’m just taking the incumbent Weatherly over Odenigbo. Adding Jalyn Holmes puts some stress on this group – even though he’s moving inside a lot, he’ll still eat a roster spot. Ade Aruna is a little too raw right now, but should stay on the practice squad.

DT: The Vikings only need two run stuffers, and they tend to favor versatile players. That’s bad news for David Parry. Really, Jalyn Holmes and Brian Robison will play the same position, so the distinction between “DE” and “DT” is arbitrary.

LB: Mike Needham was set back by his mormon mission in Mexico, but he’s on a faster path of development (otherwise he would have never gotten looks from 3 different NFC teams). He’ll steal that 4-game spot from Antwione Williams, who can’t play special teams, and Reshard Cliett, who has yet to take a snap in the NFL after 3 years.

CB: Sherels has been a hot point of debate, but Mike Boone, Stacy Coley and Mike Hughes all replace his special teams and return ability. I’m projecting that Holton Hill plays better than Sherels at cornerback, and the road finally ends here for the 7-year vet. I could see Newman hitting an age cliff and letting him back on the roster, but I’m not predicting that right now.

K: Carlson may have a longer leash than kickers usually get just because he got drafted. That’s not necessarily smart, but it’s the way teams behave. Forbath is at a disadvantage.

And now, we begin the joys of training camp and another season of football. Thank you all so much for tagging along on this journey!

You can follow me @LukeBraunNFL on Twitter, or follow @PurplePTSD or @vikingterritory for more Vikings content!