The Vikings’ kicker “competition” is probably already over

In Saturday night’s 42-28 victory for the Minnesota Vikings over the Denver Broncos, the Vikings may have already gotten a winner in the kicking “competition” that doesn’t actually exist, and probably never did.

The Vikings had a bit of a different setup last night for their kickers, as veteran Kai Forbath exclusively handled kickoff while rookie Daniel Carlson handled all of the extra point and field goal work.

Both men handled what they were asked to do very well. Forbath had eight kickoffs on the evening, with six of them going for touchbacks. Carlson was equally impressive, hitting all four of his extra points and making two field goals, one of which was a 57-yard bomb that he crushed with room to spare.

We’ve been told this offseason that there was going to be a kicking competition between Forbath and Carlson, but honestly. . .I think that, deep in our heart of hearts, we know that’s not true. The Vikings not only drafted Carlson this past April, but traded up in order to secure his services. Forbath, on the other hand, signed a one-year deal this offseason that had very little guaranteed money, so it wouldn’t hurt the Vikings to cut him loose.

Kai Forbath has performed ably for the Vikings since he was signed to replace Blair Walsh in the middle of the 2016 season. However, the kicking competition in Vikings training camp was over the minute that Daniel Carlson’s name was called on draft day. Barring some sort of an injury, Carlson is going to be your kicker for the purple this season.