Ever since Charley “Fact Finder” Walters of the Pioneer Press wrote an article in which he said Ryan Longwell had signed a $2 million deal with the Vikings, which later turned out to be false, there has been a growing sense that Longwell would be rejoining the Vikings despite the lack of a contract.
I am now 99% sure that is the case.
In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised now if Walters’ article was alluding to an in-place agreement that just won’t be made official until after the lockout concludes.
My reason for being so sure is how Special Teams Coordinator talks about Longwell as if there is no chance he’ll play elsewhere in 2011.
“The great thing about Ryan — he’s a wily veteran,” Priefer said recently about rule changes affecting kickoffs. “He’s got a lot of what I call tricks in his bag. He’s going to have opportunities to place kicks where he wants them, high, short, shorter, deeper, not as high with the hang time. We’ll be able to be creative.”
“Hopefully, every now and then, he’ll get us a few touchbacks.”
That sounds to me like a guy that knows he’ll be getting to work with the veteran kicker next season, despite the fact that the Vikings recently held a private visit with Stanford kicker Nate Whitaker.
So, that’s my prediction for the week. Nothing earth shattering. But, I now am very confident Longwell will be our kicker next season.


April 11th, 2011
Adam Warwas
Posted in
Good. Longwell is a good player glad to have him back.
Longwell seems to come up a lot with you, Adam. Were you a PK in Pop Warner or something, or is it just a mancrush on ol’ Ryan?
Guess I didn’t really realize the ratio, Tomb… nope, I wasn’t a PK though.
I dont know guys, Freds want to go with kicker at #12. Could really shake shake things up. hehe
Don’t trust rankings. Lots of touchbacks and missed two fg’s. Out of end zone kicker?
[...] efforts to mis-lead his readers into thinking Longwell had re-signed with the Vikings, and despite my best efforts to assure you all that he will be retained, the fact remains that Longwell will become an unrestricted free agent [...]
[...] agent, Longwell sounds like patience really has been virtue for him, but he also seems confident (as do I) that he’ll be returning to [...]