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The Vikings were unhappy with how their special teams were performing during the preseason, so they went out and acquired Kaare Vedvik from the Baltimore Ravens.
Vedvik’s acquisition appeared to turn the right levers with Dan Bailey, and his performance in the Buffalo game secured him the kicking job.
As for Vedvik, he was released after struggling in two of the three facets of being a kicker (though he was, admittedly, rather good on kickoffs).
The release of Vedvik didn’t save Matt Wile’s job though, as it was announced by at least one national writer that the Vikings were signing a new punter for the 2019 regular season.
The #Vikings are signing former #Browns punter Britton Colquitt and releasing promising young punter Matt Wile, sources say.
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) September 1, 2019
Britton Colquitt, 34, was released by the Browns yesterday as part of their cutdown after punting for the Browns for three seasons (2016-18).
Before his three-year stint with the Browns, Colquitt started as an undrafted free agent in 2009 and was signed off the Dolphins practice squad that year to punt for the Denver Broncos. Colquitt punted for the Broncos for seven seasons and holds several team records in punting.
Skill-wise, Colquitt has a quiet reputation as a solid place-kicking holder, and I would expect that one of the reasons he was targeted was to upgrade the holding situation, which has been speculated as being one of the reasons the Vikings kicking situation has suffered over the last couple of years.
From what research I can find on Colquitt, it does not appear as though he has any experience in kickoffs, so I would expect that Dan Bailey would resume that part of his job as well.
Welcome to the newest kicker in the Vikings organization!