How Will Blair Walsh Adjust To Playing Outside?

On the day Blair Walsh was drafted by the Vikings, most everyone went 'who?'

When we looked up his stats while at the University of Georgia, we all went 'WTF?'  Well, at least I did.  I mean, the Vikings had Ryan Longwell, who was one of the most accurate kickers in NFL history.  He had kicked clutch game winners for the Vikings time and time again.

Sure, his range was down on kickoffs, but anything from 45 yards in on a field goal attempt was money. Less than a week later, the Vikings cut Longwell and gave the job to Walsh. We all thought Rick Spielman was a moron.

That is, until Blair Walsh re-wrote the record book as a rookie. Kicking from the friendly confines of the Metrodome, Walsh has has a fantastic start to his career.  Let's look at his first two seasons as a field goal kicker:

But with the Vikings moving outside to TCF Bank Stadium, how will Walsh fare?  Collegiately, he kicked at Georgia in the SEC, and never had to deal with adverse weather.  With minicamp getting underway, Walsh and punter Jeff Locke are checking out the conditions at TCF:

Stadium selfie? Sounds about right. What's #18 doing? #lurking pic.twitter.com/rWN8Ycf9DZ

— Blair Walsh (@BlairWalsh3) April 11, 2014

So how has Walsh done outside as a Viking? In his two year NFL career, he's kicked outside in 12 of 32 regular season games.  So let's break out his outdoor kicking stats:

* 4 games total

**8 games total

A couple of interesting things to note here.  In his rookie season, the field goal percentage dropped from 92% to 77%, but when Walsh kicked outside more often in 2013, his field goal percentage got better.  And last year, playing an additional four games outside, his outdoor indoor split was identical: 15 attempts, 13 made, for an 86.7% field goal accuracy. And if you'll remember, two of the last three outdoor games were in either pretty cold temperatures (at Green Bay), or in a blizzard (at Baltimore).  In those games, Walsh was 6/6 in field goals.

So what can we take away from all of this? For one, Blair Walsh is one of the best, if not the best, kicker in the NFL. And whether he's kicking inside or outside, his kicks are going to be good, eight or nine times out of ten, regardless of the weather.