Blair Walsh Makes Pro Football Focus History

Every year, the folks over at Pro Football Focus compile their list of the Top 101 players in the National Football League. They've started doing so in the wake in the 2013 NFL Draft, with the first installment covering players 91-101 having been released just a little while ago.

The list begins with a name that Minnesota Vikings fans are quite familiar with, that of rookie kicker Blair Walsh. How great was #3's season last year?

Spoiler alert: Walsh is the only special teams specialist to make the list this year. That makes him the first and only kicker to be selected to a PFF Top 101, and it wasn't a choice without its detractors. However, when you nail 10-out-of-10 kicks from 50 yards or more you put yourself in with a chance of making this list and the record-breaking Walsh did just that. A truly special year for this kicker.

For any kicker, that's pretty darn impressive, never mind a rookie that had some question marks attached after being drafted by the Vikings in the sixth round following a rough senior year at the University of Georgia. But, from the time that the Vikings released incumbent Ryan Longwell, the team made it clear that they had confidence in Walsh, and he has repaid them in spades through his first season.

Congratulations to Blair Walsh on being the first kicker ever. . .EV-ER. . .named to the PFF Top 101.