Latest Blair Walsh miss has Vikings looking at kickers

ByBEN GOESSLING
November 15, 2016, 12:00 PM

— -- EDEN PRAIRIE, Minn. -- The Minnesota Vikings kept Blair Walsh on their roster after his third missed extra point of the season last week. It remains to be seen whether they'll keep him after his fourth.

Coach Mike Zimmer said Monday that the Vikings will again consider their options at kicker after Walsh missed another extra point in Sunday's 26-20 loss to the Washington Redskins. The team worked out six kickers Tuesday after Walsh missed an extra point and had a field goal blocked in an overtime loss to the Detroit Lions, but the Vikings decided to stick with the fifth-year kicker, who'd signed a four-year contract extension with the Vikings in 2015.

The latest miss from Walsh, though, will apparently cause the Vikings to revisit the kicker situation.

"We're going to see what all the options are," Zimmer said. "We're going to see what the options are at tackle [after Jake Long injured his left Achilles tendon Sunday]. We'll see what the options are at kicker, and then make a determination and go."

The Vikings worked out Kai Forbath, Randy Bullock, Zach Hocker, Travis Coons, Aldrick Rosas and Marshall Koehn last week, but didn't sign any of them. Special-teams coordinator Mike Priefer said last week that he believed the tryouts would "light a fire" under Walsh.

"He got ticked off in a good way, I think, because he's a competitive young man," Priefer said Thursday. "When you bring in guys that are potentially going to take your job, guys that want your job, that's the way you want him to react. If he didn't react that way, I would be really worried, and we probably would be looking for another guy. He got -- I don't want to say angry, but he got a little fired up in a very respectful way, just like he always is. I expect him to go out and kick well for us this weekend and the rest of the year."

Walsh was in the Vikings' practice facility Monday afternoon, working out by himself, but was not in the team's locker room during media access.