The latest episode of "As Dan Bailey Turns" came and went Wednesday. The embattled Vikings kicker made it through another day, albeit one in which his head coach did not exactly speak of him in glowing terms.
When asked if the Vikings anticipate having Bailey — who has missed a combined seven kicks the last two weeks — do the job again on Sunday and then if he thinks the Vikings will add another kicker to the roster, Zimmer offered the same terse two-word answer:
"We'll see."
But as we discussed on the latest Access Vikings podcast, there isn't much to see at this point. Ben Goessling — spoiler alert — said Bailey is going to be the kicker on Sunday.
Goessling makes two good points: One, because of COVID protocols the Vikings wouldn't be able to use veteran Chandler Catanzaro — who has made nearly 84% of his career field goals — unless they trotted him out Sunday without a single practice with the team. And two, the last time Zimmer's Vikings cut a veteran kicker (Blair Walsh, then in his fifth season in 2016), they gave him an extra week and one more chance to save his job.
But NFL coaches (Zimmer in particular) are conditioned to not volunteer information. He's treating this — hilariously, in some ways — like a coach manufacturing a quarterback dilemma, as if not knowing what kicker a team will use is some disadvantage for an opponent.
About the nicest thing Zimmer would say about Bailey on Wednesday was this: "I don't think we have a kicker we can't depend on."
That double-negative isn't exactly a positive, but expect Bailey to be kicking Sunday. Beyond that? Especially if he misses another kick and the Vikings are still in the playoff hunt after the Bears game? All bets are off.
