Minnesota Vikings 'lit a fire' under Blair Walsh by bringing in kickers
Trying out some kickers seems to have put some extra motivation on Blair Walsh, whose recent struggles have been a cause for alarm going forward.
Kickers go through slumps in the NFL all the time. All it takes is one miss in a big spot to shake the confidence of the specialist and cause them to make mental or physical mistakes in the kicking game. Minnesota Vikings kicker Blair Walsh is pretty deep in one of those slumps right now.
Walsh is at the bottom of the league when it comes to accuracy kicking extra points and has missed some big field goals which could have made the difference at the end of football games over the last two years.
The Vikings hoped to keep his confidence up by not bringing in competition for him during training camp or the preseason, but have changed course recently when they worked out some kickers this week.
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Special teams coach Mike Priefer says just bringing in some competition has made Walsh realize even more how important it is for him to get out of his slump. The coach spoke in an article on ESPN.com:
It’s hard to tell how a player will respond to a team appearing to prepare for moving on from them. Sometimes it is a big motivator and other times it can crush a player’s confidence even more. But Priefer says this move has the Vikings kicker fired up.
Blair Walsh will get an opportunity to prove that he’s the right man for the job starting with week 10 on the road when the Minnesota Vikings go up against the Washington Redskins.