Luke Braun's Film Room: What's Wrong With Will Reichard?

As the Minnesota Vikings approach the playoffs, rookie kicker Will Reichard has been missing an astonishing number of kicks. What's going on? Luke Braun looked at some feet to find out.

Photo by Stephen Maturen/Getty Images

After the hype surrounding Will Reichard in training camp, I’ll forgive you if you forgot a cardinal rule of the Vikings: that kickers can never prosper in Minnesota. I probably don’t have to tell you about the sordid history of kicking in Minnesota, and you probably don’t want to relive any of those moments.

We might be experiencing another one. After a perfect start to the season for the first seven games, Will Reichard missed two against the Colts, got hurt, and hasn’t been the same since.

John Parker Romo filled in admirably, missing just one kick in his four-game stint as Vikings kicker. But upon Reichard’s return, the Vikings sent Romo back to LinkedIn and have stuck with their rookie kicker.

Including those two against the Colts, Reichard has missed six field goals over his last six games. His full-season field goal percentage has fallen to 25th in the league. What happened? What’s different? What the goddamn hell?

We’ve discussed Reichard and Romo before by examining famous moments from Daniel Carlson, Blair Walsh and Justin Tucker. We’re going to draw on that knowledge again here, so keep that one open in another tab. Or don’t. Do whatever you want.

Obviously, Justin Tucker is the gold standard. We can look at how he kicks to get a sense for what kicks are supposed to look like, then look for areas of contrast to highlight in Rei- I’m sorry, what’s that? Justin Tucker sucks now? Say what now?

We Have To Talk About Justin Tucker First

In fact, Tucker’s fall from grace in 2024 is instructive to our Reichard issues. At the very least, we can expand our knowledge base on how a dip in athleticism can affect kickers, and how that might look on the field.