NFL: Vikings Sign Kicker Dan Bailey; Cut Daniel Carlson
Dan Bailey: Cowboys legend and one of the most accurate kickers in NFL. In the world professional sports, one team's loss is another team's gain. Cowboys lost, Vikings got a desperate win.
The Minnesota Vikings are signing veteran kicker Dan Bailey to a one year deal.
Minnesota made another decision about their kicking by releasing former starting kicker Daniel Carlson. Daniel was the Vikings' fifth-round pick out of Auburn. He looked good during the preseason going 4/6 FGs (*he even made a 57-yard field goal). The first game of the regular season he went 1/1 FG for 48 yds.
But the next game, everything just came crashing down on Daniel. He went 0/3 FGs with two missed kicks in overtime in a 29-29 tie against Aaron Rodgers and the Green Bay Packers. All he had to do was hit one of those field goals(especially one of the two in overtime) and the Vikings would be 2-0 right now. That's why the decision to cut Carlson was, according to head coach Mike Zimmer, "pretty easy."
The Vikings have attempted to fix their kicking problems with a legendary kicker in Dan Bailey. Bailey has spent his entire career with the Dallas Cowboys. Over that time Bailey has made 88.2% of his field goals and 99.3% of his extra points. He is 2nd in field goal percentage behind Justin Tuker, 3rd in the all-time Cowboy scoring list behind Emmitt Smith and kicker Rafael Septien and is the all-time Cowboy leader in field goals.
The kicker had the worst season of his career last season coming off of a groin injury. Dan kicked 75% from FG and missed 2 XPs. The results from the injury caused the Cowboys to part ways with Dan Bailey and put their trust in former CFL kicker Brett Maher.
Now the Vikings have found a kicker they have trust in and Bailey is playing for a Super Bowl capable team. Let's see what Dan does in the purple, gold and white.
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