Vikings' Special Teams Ranked Near Bottom of League For 2023
Turnovers and injuries were the big stories of the Vikings' disappointing 7-10 season, but they quietly struggled quite a bit on special teams as well. They came in at 27th in Rick Gosselin's annual special teams rankings, which were released last week. That's roughly in line with their 30th-place finish in special teams DVOA.
Gosselin's ranks are compiled by ordering teams in "22 kicking-game categories" and giving them points based on their standing (1 for best, 32 for worst). The lower the overall score, the better. The Vikings had 444 points, or an average finish of 20.2 out of 32 among the 22 categories.
The Vikings scored poorly in punt return yardage, average starting field position, field goal percentage, opponent field goal percentage, and punting inside the 20. Their kick return yardage was a bright spot.
Minnesota may be in the market for a new kicker this offseason after another inconsistent year from Greg Joseph, who is now a free agent. Joseph hit 24 of his 30 field goal attempts (80 percent), which was actually an improvement from 2022 (26 of 33). He was perfect from inside 40 yards but just 7 of 13 from beyond 40, with most of those misses going wide right. A positive development was that he missed just two extra points after averaging five misses over the two previous years.
At punter, Ryan Wright's second season was not nearly as strong as his first. He ranked 18th in net punting at 41.6 yards, but he had the third-highest touchback percentage and placed just 28.8 percent of his punts inside the 20 (29th out of 33 qualified punters). Wright has a big leg and seems likely to retain the job for a third year, but there might be a training camp competition.
Kene Nwangwu had a quiet year at kick returner, getting just 15 opportunities, but he remained solid and had a 47-yard return in the season finale. Brandon Powell was mediocre at punt returner with an average of 7.8 yards and a long return of 25. Undrafted rookie NaJee Thompson had a strong second half of the season as a punt gunner.
Vikings special teams coordinator Matt Daniels is beloved by his players, ranking third among STCs in an NFLPA survey that had players rate their coaches. However, the Vikings finished 30th in DVOA for the second consecutive year and dropped from 15th to 27th in Gosselin's statistical rankings. Daniels may need his phase to show some improvement in 2024 if he's going to keep the job beyond next season.
Ryan Wright and Greg Joseph both had their struggles in 2023.
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