Presented by

Lunchbreak: ESPN Touts Will Reichard; The Athletic Notes Dallas Turner's Surge as Both Cap 2nd Season

Jan 06, 2026 at 12:20 PM

Rob Kleifield

Editorial Assistant

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 17^th 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.

Reichard was a stud the entire campaign. One of his misses appeared to deflect off a Skycam wire in London and swerved off target. The controversy was heightened later in the year when legendary analyst Al Michaels broadcasted that belief during Minnesota's game at Los Angeles on Thursday Night Football. Eventually, Michaels issued a correction tinged with sarcasm: "The league wants to take my lunch away because I said before that Reichard's only miss came when he hit a wire in London," the play-by-play commentator said. "The league says, 'No, no, it was an optical illusion.' [But] not what Reichard thinks."

Anywho, Reichard didn't let that moment overseas faze him. The 2024 sixth-round draft pick out of Alabama and college football's all-time leader for points scored in a career (547) made 19 consecutive kicks to close out his second season and demonstrably edged Aubrey in a head-to-head Dec. 14 at Dallas.

Through the first 30 games of Reichard's career, he has 57 field goals, including 19 from 50-plus yards.

Only 12 players in NFL history made more within their first two seasons: Aubrey (76), Justin Tucker (68), Richie Cunningham (63), Harrison Butker (62), Dan Bailey (61), Jay Feely (61), Mike Vanderjagt (61), Walsh (61), Kevin Butler (59), Dustin Hopkins (59), Wil Lutz (59) and Mason Crosby (58). And just three have more 50-yarders than him since 2024: Aubrey (25) and Ka'imi Fairbairn and Chris Boswell (both 22).

Reichard earned his flowers, and it'll be a travesty if he's excluded from the real All-Pro Teams.

You can read about the rest of Barnwell's First-Team selections here.

Promising future for 2024 1^st-Rounder

There were at least two reasons for stretches of silence from Dallas Turner in his first two seasons.

As a 21-year-old rookie, the 17^th overall pick slotted in on the depth chart behind two Pro Bowl outside linebackers in Jonathan Greenard and Andrew Van Ginkel — arguably the two best players on the Vikings defense since Turner was drafted. And while J.G. and Gink' are listed as OLBs, they handle unique roles.

In the simplest terms: assignments, alignments and techniques differ for each position and demand brainpower as much as brawn in a liberating scheme employed by Defensive Coordinator Brian Flores.

Turner has learned both. He has performed both. And he's flashed excellence playing both in multiple games. But that doesn't change the second reason for at-times quieter production: Turner is developing.

Sunday's season-wrapping win over Green Bay was the latest proof that Turner is panning out as a pro.

We're talkin' 'bout six tackles and two sacks, including his fourth strip sack in 17 games — four more than he managed in his debut season and the most by a Viking since Jared Allen also had four in 2011.

But wait, there's more!

Turner's magnum opus so far lifted his season sack count to 8.0, which is the most in one year by someone 22 or younger dressed in purple garb since Danielle Hunter in 2016 (12.5). Turner's two sacks and one strip sack (he had two of each in Week 13 at Seattle) linked him to Hunter and the NFL's new single-season sack leader Myles Garrett as the lone players with at least two games of that kind in 2025.

In other words, Turner is not silent anymore.

Jon Krawczynski of The Athletic on Monday assessed Turner's enthralling Year 2 finish and the groundwork he laid for a promising future. Here's an excerpt from Krawczynski's piece (found here):

Turner's first sack Sunday came in a 1-on-1 matchup against tight end Drake Dabney, who was brought up from the practice squad for a game the Packers were not concerned with winning. The second was against backup left tackle Jordan Morgan (a first-round pick, No. 24 overall, the same year Turner was chosen), so it wasn't like he was beating up on All-Pros. But the encouraging part for the Vikings was that Turner made both of them look inferior, which is exactly what a first-round pick is supposed to do.

…

Through all the ups and downs, Turner has leaned on Van Ginkel for guidance. The seventh-year veteran speaks fluent "Flores," often serving as an interpreter of sorts between professor and student.

As much as people may want instant results from a player with such clear talent, it's important to contextualize Turner's growth from his first season to now and why it bodes well for 2026 and beyond.