Bill Barnwell watched the tape and crunched the numbers.
Then, the ESPN writer decided Minnesota’s Will Reichard is the crème de la crème of NFL kickers.
Barnwell unveiled his personal choices for the 2025 NFL All-Pro roster last week and rewarded the special teams wunderkind that greatly impressed at every twist of a roller-coaster season for the Vikings.
Reichard, by all accounts, performed like an All-Pro, which Minnesota hasn’t had at kicker since Blair Walsh burst onto the scene in 2012 and garnered First-Team recognition at 22 years old. The only other All-Pro kicker in Vikings annals is Gary Anderson, who received First-Team honors 27 years ago, in his 17th NFL season and first for Minnesota, at age 39. Reichard wasn’t elected to the 2026 Pro Bowl Games — the fan-voting component has turned the process into a quasi-popularity contest — but he should be an All-Pro (those awards will be announced in coming days).
Reichard’s likeliest competition is Cowboys K Brandon Aubrey, who beat him on the NFC Pro Bowl ballot.
Ahead of the Week 18 slate this past Sunday, Barnwell wrote the following:
Aubrey gets deserved plaudits as the league’s best kicker on a weekly basis, but Reichard has actually been slightly better this season per advanced metrics. He has attempted eight fewer field goals than Aubrey, but Reichard has gone 30-for-32, whereas Aubrey is 35-for-40. Even with the slightly reduced volume, Reichard has made 6.7 more field goals than expected (per NGS), compared with 6.5 for Aubrey, as his average field goal make has been from a yard further out. Reichard has also been perfect on extra points. Vikings fans endured about a decade of frustrating kickers, but Reichard has broken that trend.
Factoring in the season finale, Reichard finished 33-for-35 on attempted field goals and drilled all 31 of his extra-point tries. His FG percentage of 94.3% ranks No. 3 on the franchise’s season leaderboard (min. 20 attempts), behind a couple campaigns put together by Anderson — 100% in 1998 and 95.7% in 2000.