The Minnesota Vikings Need to Sign Another Kicker

Blair Walsh's season-opening miss made an uncomfortable truth painfully clear: The Minnesota Vikings have too much riding on this season to trust it to an untrustworthy kicker.

Walsh exploded onto the NFL scene in 2012 with a legendary rookie performance: He nailed 35 of his 38 attempts, including an incredible 10-of-10 from 50-plus yards out. Since then, he's cycled through flashes of mediocrity, solidity, flat-out awfulness and brilliance.

In 2015, Walsh generally seemed to be "back," leading the NFL in field goals made with a strong 87.2 percent conversion rate. That wasn't as strong as his rookie-season 92.1 percent, but still strong.

Then came the miss that totally didn't ruin his life, you guys.

The Vikings were a 27-yard field goal away from knocking the Seattle Seahawks out of the playoffs—a field goal five yards shorter than the new extra point. Walsh pulled it, ending the Vikings' division-title winning season.

This season, everything seemed to be lining up. The Vikings were opening a beautiful new stadium, the young talent on both sides of the ball seemed to be maturing and quarterback Teddy Bridgewater was having an excellent camp.

Then Bridgewater's vicious knee injury forced the Vikings to hit the panic button as hard as it can be hit: On the eve of the season, they gave up a first-round pick and conditional fourth-round pick for quarterback Sam Bradford. It made sense; with a strong, deep defense and Adrian Peterson already on the wrong side of 30, the Vikings are in all-in mode.

So when Walsh lined up for his first field goal attempt and did the above, Twitter exploded:

Every bar in Uptown is infested with Packers fans and the place I'm at broke out in laughter when Blair Walsh missed. This is a nightmare.
— Aaron Gleeman (@AaronGleeman) September 11, 2016

How many missed FGs until that first grade class stops sending Blair Walsh letters of support and starts sending hate mail?
— Clue Heywood (@ClueHeywood) September 11, 2016

Walsh is incredibly talented, and in the second year of a five-year contract extension, but the Vikings have bet the organization on winning this year. Whether it's backup Shaun Hill or Bradford under center, this team is going to be grinding out wins with on ball-control, mistake-free football.

In that context, a kicker who can't be trusted from within 40 yards is unacceptable. And Walsh ended the first half with another miss, this one from 56 yards out.

He made a 50-yarder on the opening drive of the second half, but he flat-out cannot rob this offense of six points. The VIkings need him to be around that 90 percent mark if they're going to beat the NFC's best, let alone also-rans like the Titans.

Obviously, the Vikings aren't going to cut Walsh after the game. But if they're going to give up a first-round pick (plus a conditional pick that could be as high as a second-rounder) in order to keep this season's hopes alive, they can't just wait around and hope Walsh doesn't shank them out of the playoffs again.

Even if it's just to keep Walsh honest, it's time for the Vikings to sign another kicker.