The Vikings re-signed kicker Dan Bailey in the offseason and there was a lot of reasoning to back that up at the time.
Bailey, historically one of the more accurate kickers in the NFL, was coming off a year where he made a little over 93% of his field goals.
Part of this Vikings season can be defined by certain negative turning points that resulted in Minnesota missing the postseason. Unfortunately for the Vikings and Bailey, the kicker was responsible for some of them.
Bailey, who was available to media for the first time since the Buccaneers game, talked about his tough month:
“It’s been frustrating,” Bailey said, via Mark Craig of the Star Tribune. “That’s probably the best word right now.”
Bailey missed four kicks against the Buccaneers. If Minnesota had won that game, its postseason chances would have gone up dramatically. Bailey talked about those missed kicks:
“It’s a performance-based business and obviously I did not perform, really at all — statistically — that day,” Bailey said, via Ben Goessling of the Star Tribune. “I don’t know that’s in my mind. I think it’s always one of those understood things: you’ve got to go out there and do your job and if you don’t do it to the standard that’s needed, there are plenty of other people out there on the street or on a practice squad somewhere that are chomping at the bit to get an opportunity.”
He is questionable on the Friday injury report for the Week 17 game. However, he seemed optimistic about playing against the Lions.
“I feel like I should be able to go this weekend. I had a good workload [Friday], and I felt good doing that,” Bailey said, per Craig. “The best I can do is put all that stuff behind me.”