The most scoring player in FBS history is headed to Minnesota. In the sixth round of the NFL Draft on Saturday, the Vikings called the name of Will Reichard, who was taken with the 203rd overall pick.
The former Alabama star was the first kicker drafted in the 2024 NFL Draft. It’s no surprise that the Vikings ended up selecting Reichard, and that’s because they were one of the few teams that really needed to come out of the draft with a kicker. They had Greg Joseph last season, but they let him enter free agency.
Entering the draft, the Vikings had only one kicker on their roster, John Parker Romo, who had never kicked in an NFL game. Parker Romo will now compete with Reichard for Minnesota’s kicker job.
Reichard will likely enter this competition with a lot of confidence given what he did in college. During his five-year career at Alabama, Reichard scored a total of 547 points, which is the most by any player in FBS history. Reichard made 88 percent of his field goals last season, which included a perfect 5 of 5 from 50 yards or more. In Alabama’s biggest game of the year, Reichard scored two long-range field goals (50, 52) in a 27-20 loss to Michigan in the College Football Playoff semifinals.
He was also deadly accurate from within 40 yards, making 47 of 49 field goals during his career from that distance (47 of 49). If there’s a question mark with Reichard, it’s his ability to hit from long range. The longest field goal he ever made at Alabama was 52 yards, and he’ll need to prove to the Vikings that he can consistently make kicks longer than that if he wants to win the contest against Parker Romo.
Reichard is the first Alabama kicker to be drafted since 1966. He is also just the third kicker drafted by the Vikings in the last 45 years, joining Blair Walsh (2012) and Daniel Carlson (2018). Reichard is the second player the Vikings selected from Alabama in this draft after Dallas Turner was selected 17th overall.
The Vikings’ decision to select Reichard triggered a series of kickers in the sixth round. Although there were no kickers in the first five rounds, there were three in Round 6 with Stanford’s Joshua Karty (209 for the Rams) and Arkansas’ Cam Little (212 for the Jaguars ) drafted after Reichard.
