Vikings take Alabama's Will Reichard in Round 6 of 2024 NFL Draft to start run on kickers

The market for kickers has experienced a slight adjustment.

The first player at the position was finally selected in the sixth round of the 2024 NFL Draft on Saturday when Minnesota spent the 203rd pick on Alabama’s Will Reichard — although it did begin a run on the position.

Reichard’s selection is the latest in which a kicker has been chosen since the Patriots picked Marshall’s Justin Rohrwasser in the fifth round (159th overall) in 2020. Since then, thanks to 2021 149th-overall pick Evan McPherson‘s red-hot run to the Super Bowl with the Bengals as a rookie, kickers have been chosen as early as the third round (San Francisco picked Michigan’s Jake Moody 99th overall in 2023) and fourth round (Cleveland chose LSU’s Cade York 124th overall in 2022).

This time around, the Vikings waited until the back half of Day 3 to take their expected replacement for Greg Joseph, who left Minnesota for Green Bay this offseason.

Arriving in Minneapolis, Reichard holds the accolades of a third-team All-American, a finalist for the Lou Groza Award twice, and the current SEC Special Teams Player of the Year. These honors were earned after he set an FBS record by scoring 547 career points. During his four-year tenure with the Crimson Tide at Alabama, Reichard set records with 84 field goals and 295 successfully converted extra points.

Minnesota has a history of kicker troubles, notoriously dumping Daniel Carlson just two games into his rookie season in a reaction that was undoubtedly tied to the club’s uneven experiences with Blair Walsh — who missed a chip shot to lose a playoff game to Seattle in 2015 — and Dan Bailey, which bookended a two-year trial with Kai Forbath. Joseph served as Minnesota’s kicker from 2021 onward, but after he proved to be inconsistent from 50-plus yards out, the Vikings decided to move on.

They’re substituting him with Reichard, a boot renowned for his long-distance attempts, having successfully converted 8 out of 10 attempts from 50 yards in his last two seasons with the Crimson Tide. Minnesota is optimistic that he can repeat this level of success in the NFL.

The Los Angeles Rams took Stanford kicker Joshua Karty shortly after at No. 209 overall, and the Jacksonville Jaguars made it a trend by selecting Arkansas’ Cam Little three picks later at No. 212.