Last week they ran a focal piece on Donovan Jackson...

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How Vikings kicker Will Reichard became one of the NFL’s most dangerous weapons

From specialized coaching as a child to mastering leg speed and technique, Reichard has made 31 consecutive field goals. He’s at the forefront of league-wide kicking boom.

Growing up in Hoover, Ala., Will Reichard was something of a cheat code for his youth football teams.

As is the case in many states, Alabama’s youth football rules awarded only one point for running or passing the ball across the goal line following a touchdown. Since few teams had trustworthy kickers, putting the ball through the uprights was worth two points after a TD.

Enter Reichard, who started kicking in second grade when his father Gary signed him up for football.

“My dad wanted me to get more tough in soccer,” Will Reichard said. “Obviously, that ended up working out.”

He realized he could provide a bonus for his youth teams because of the extra-point rules, and started training with private coaches. He’s trained with eight or 10 different coaches throughout his career; Reichard said he still trains with three or four of them. Back then, he had to scout throughout the state to find private tutors.

“Now,” he said, “you go to Birmingham and there’s three or four just in the city alone.”

The Vikings’ 25-year-old kicker, who has made his last 31 field goals after going 5-for-5 last week against the Dolphins, is at the forefront of a kicking boom that’s had young specialists hitting from longer distances and with more accuracy than ever before.

Kickers are 51 for 75 (68%) from 50-plus yards this season, after making 69.8% of their tries from 50 yards or more last season. Ten years ago, kickers made just 55% of their attempts from 50 yards or more.

The number of field-goal attempts from 50-plus yards has also grown each of the past five years. There were 183 in 2021. Through four weeks this season, the number of attempts from 50-plus is on pace to surpass 300.

The increase is even more staggering from 60-plus yards.

As recently as 2020, kickers were just 1-for-10 from at least 60 yards out. Last year, they attempted a record 21 kicks from 60-plus yards and hit 11 of them.

So far this season, kickers are 3 of 7 from at least 60 yards out; the number of 60-plus attempts is on pace to shatter last year’s record.

Vikings coach Kevin O’Connell has marveled at the change. He’s watched as teams, including his own, have gotten more and more comfortable sending kickers out for long tries.

“It just seems like it is what it is, and guys are launching it,” O’Connell said.

Specialized training helped NFL kickers like Will Reichard

Vikings special teams coordinator Matt Daniels attributed some of the improvement to the 2025 rule change that allowed teams to start working with their kicking balls ahead of time.

“Prior to this rule, you would get them the day of the game, and so the equipment staff has a small window to get this football [perfect] as best they can,” Daniels said. “Now, with the rules, you get these balls at essentially the start of the season; guys are able to work and really scrub down these balls to essentially perfect footballs. And so balls are traveling further.”

Reichard and long snapper Andrew DePaola cited another reason for the uptick: specialized training that’s allowing kickers to perfect their technique and build strength earlier.

”I think it’s something guys are doing and committing to at an early age,” DePaola said. “It’s not just like, ‘Hey, who’s on the team that can kick?’ Right now it’s like, ‘I am the kicker,’ like it’s, ‘I am the quarterback. That’s my thing.’ I think guys are just more all-in. There’s tons of developmental camps, a ton of showcases, so it’s become a big, big deal. So you see the guys who have the talent sticking with it and becoming those exceptional kickers that we’re seeing today.”

Through the years, Reichard has also learned how to optimize his body for more powerful kicks. It’s got less to do with leg strength than it does with leg speed, he said.

”That’s probably the most important thing when it comes to how far you can kick the ball,” Reichard said. “There’s a few kickers out there that are ripped, and they can kick the ball a long way, but they also have really fast legs. Some of the guys that can kick it a long way are smaller guys that just have very twitchy [muscles]. It’s the same as a golf swing; the faster you can get that club head through, the longer you’ll hit it. So strength definitely plays a part in it, but guys are just more athletic and train on speed.”

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