The Minnesota Vikings are off to a 5-0 start, and most of the attention has gone to Brian Flores’s defense. That makes sense. But tucked into Sunday’s 23-13 win over the New Orleans Saints was another unit quietly doing real work: Matt Daniels’s special teams.
That group showed up everywhere against New Orleans. Will Reichard stayed perfect by drilling all three field goals and both extra points.
Myles Price added a jolt with a 43-yard punt return. Jake Golday made his own mark by forcing a fumble on the kickoff to open the second half.
With the defense handling its business and an improved offense led by Kyler Murray doing the rest, the Vikings kept rolling.
For Minnesota, this kind of performance has become normal. And that’s exactly why Daniels’s return after last season now looks like the right call.
A year ago, Vikings special teams were a sore spot for everyone who watched them closely. The penalties stood out first.
Minnesota finished ninth in the NFL with 23 flags, and those mistakes cost the team 198 yards. They also wiped out returns that might have improved the Vikings’ average starting field position, which sat at their own 30.8-yard line.
Even with Reichard and former punter Ryan Wright producing solid numbers, the coverage units were a mess. It all came to a head in a Week 11 loss to the Chicago Bears.
That game turned after J.J. McCarthy hit Jordan Addison for a go-ahead, 15-yard touchdown with 50 seconds left.
Up 17-16, Reichard chose to let Devin Duvernay try a kickoff return instead of sending the ball out of the end zone. Ivan Pace Jr. then ran out of his lane, opening the door for Duvernay’s 56-yard return.
Chicago finished the job with Cairo Santos’s 48-yard field goal as time expired.
Daniels later said he got “greedy” in that moment and was “looking to make the play” rather than trusting the defense. Cameras also caught Kevin O’Connell in a sharp exchange with Daniels afterward, and fans had every reason to wonder if his job was safe. After Minnesota missed the playoffs, firing him would not have been a surprise.
Instead, Daniels has turned the unit into one that is working at a high level.
Reichard has been the most visible part of it. After going 3-for-3 against the Saints, he is now a perfect 15-for-15 on field goals.
Dallas Turner called him “a cold-blooded sniper,” and Daniels has kept him steady. Reichard has now made his last 34 field-goal attempts, a streak that dates back to a Week 8 loss to the Los Angeles Chargers last season.
The Vikings have also handled the transition at punter well after Wright left in free agency. Brett Thorson, the Georgia product, missed the past two games with a hamstring injury, but before Sunday he had placed five of his first 10 punts inside the 20-yard line. Against the Saints, he had a touchback and a 39-yard punt, but he also pinned another kick inside the 20, giving him six such punts on 13 tries this season.
The coverage work still has room to improve. Minnesota ranks 21st with 9.7 yards allowed per punt return and 25.1 yards per kickoff return. But the unit is making more game-changing plays, and that matters for a team built on field position and defense.
When your defense is this good, every yard counts. And as the offense starts to find its footing, getting reliable points every time Reichard comes on is a huge edge.
It all points back to Daniels, who easily could have been shown the door after last season. Instead, he’s put the special teams back on track and given Vikings fans one more reason to feel good about a 5-0 start.
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Vikings Enter Bye With A Rising Star And A Real Concern
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Booths rise has been especially encouraging, with the young defensive back tying for the league lead in interceptions and giving the Vikings another playmaker in a secondary that needs them. On the other side of the ball, though, the passing game still has a question hanging over it, and Jalen Jennings has yet to turn the opportunity around even with injuries around him creating openings that should have mattered. [Read more 🡒]