Vikings kicker Dan Bailey had quite a bit of money on the line in Week 17.
Bailey went into the game connecting on 92 percent of his kicks. If Bailey stayed above 90 percent, he would receive a $1 million bonus on top of his $1 million contract.
Vikings’ kicker Dan Bailey, who has made 92 percent of his field goals this season (23/25), earns a $1 million incentive if he stays about the 90 percent threshold. If he’s between 87.5-90 percent, it falls to $750,000; if he’s b/w 84-87.5 percent, it’s $500,000. Big day today.
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) December 29, 2019
Bailey did his part, connecting on all four of his field goal attempts. To wrap up the 2019 season, Bailey connected on 27 of 29 attempts, good for 93.1 percent, just 0.7 percent behind his career high set back with the Cowboys in 2015.
It would have been hard to predict this much success from Bailey after it seemed like the team did everything, including trade a fifth-round pick for Kaare Vedvik, to replace him in 2019.
It was probably a good thing they didn’t.