2021 Special Team Stats

The Vikings headed into the season with veteran punter Britton Colquitt but transitioned in early September, signing Australian punter Jordan Berry and opting to release Colquitt.

Ficken described moving on from Colquitt as a “very difficult decision.”

“But as an organization, we just felt Jordan was a very talented punter that was on the street. He’s got big upside with a strong leg,” Ficken said. “He’s had success in very difficult venues outside, especially, obviously Pittsburgh, and we just saw it as an opportunity to go ahead and continue to improve in every facet of this football team.”

The Vikings averaged 46.5 yards per punt, which ranked 13th, compared to ranking 20th last season with 45.1 yards per punt. Berry dropped 26 of 78 punts inside the 20-yard line for Minnesota. In 2020, Colquitt had 11 punts (of 54) inside the 20.

Looking back over his first campaign as special teams coordinator, Ficken said he was “blessed” with a talented Vikings roster.

“Those guys really played hard, and I was really happy and proud,” Ficken said. “I thought they did a lot of good things, a lot of things that we obviously need to improve on.”

Here’s a deeper look at where the Vikings had successes in 2021 and two of their biggest priorities to fix going forward in 2022.

3 strong special teams stats in 2021:

Minnesota was, at most, mediocre in kick return last season.

The Vikings averaged 21.9 yards per kickoff return in 2020, which tied for 16th in the league. Fine, but certainly not great.

Enter Nwangwu. The Vikings drafted him with the 119th overall pick, and while he didn’t see much action at running back in his debut season, Nwangwu immediately upgraded Minnesota’s special teams unit.

Nwangwu helped the Vikings average 26.5 yards per kickoff return, which ranked second-best in the NFL behind only the Jets. The rookie speedster also returned two kickoffs for touchdowns, taking it to the house in Week 9 at Baltimore and Week 12 at San Francisco.