Top 5 Minnesota Vikings Punters

The ranking of the best Minnesota Vikings players at each position continues with the punters. If I ranked the kickers, I had to rank the punters. 

1. Chris Kluwe

2. Greg Coleman

3. Ryan Wright

4. Mitch Berger

5. Bobby Walden

The above five could probably be rolled out in any order. Harry Newsome, Jeff Locke, and Britton Colquitt could also be in the mix. Chris Kluwe tops this list mostly for his consistency over eight years. I don’t remember any down years. Greg Coleman was the most fun punter in Vikings franchise history. In my memories of his 10-year career in Minnesota, he ran with the ball, rather than punted, far more times than he actually did. In reality, he ran for only four first downs. I remember more than a dozen. Ryan Wright could’ve become the best punter in Vikings franchise history. Instead, he departed this offseason for the New Orleans Saints. Over his four years in Minnesota, he has the highest yards/punt and best rate of punts inside the 20-yard line. Those are two of the best metrics for a punter. The only knock on Wright’s Vikings career is his underwhelming second season. It was that season that seemed to make him a bubble player in each of his three training camps as the incumbent. Mitch Berger was simply a solid and consistent punter for all of his six seasons in Minnesota. The Vikings have only had one punter lead the league in yards/punt. That punter was Bobby Walden. He paced the league’s punters as a rookie in 1964. As a kid, I remember Walden as the steady punter of the Pittsburgh Steelers. It was actually a bit of a shock to discover that his first four seasons were with the Vikings. How did he get away in an era when player movement was quite restricted? 

The Vikings have a solid punter history. A reason that it isn’t a great one is that the team was often looking for their next punter. Only Greg Coleman, Chris Kluwe, and Mitch Berger punted for at least five years for the Vikings. Those three are franchise outliers. Here’s a look at the team’s most tenured punters.

Greg Coleman: 10 years

Chris Kluwe: 8 years

Mitch Berger: 6 years

Ryan Wright: 4 years

Bobby Walden: 4 years

Harry Newsome: 4 years

Jeff Locke: 4 years

Neil Clabo: 3 years

Mike Eishceid: 3 years 

Bucky Scribner: 3 years

Those punters punted for 46 of the Vikings 65 years. Over the other 19 years, it was a merry-go-round of punters.