Vikings maneuver back into fifth round to draft K Daniel Carlson
General manager Rick Spielman has been busy Saturday afternoon during Day 3 of the NFL draft.
Minutes after he traded the Vikings' fifth-round pick (No. 167 overall) to move up 10 spots and select tight end Tyler Conklin, he maneuvered his way back into the No. 167 overall pick and used it to select Auburn kicker Daniel Carlson.
The Vikings swapped two sixth-round picks (180th and 204th overall) for the Jets' fifth-round pick (No. 167) and a seventh-rounder (No. 225).
Carlson is the top scorer in SEC history after racking up 480 points during his four-year career at Auburn. He never missed an extra-point attempt in college (198 for 198) and connected on 80.7 percent of his field goals (92 of 114), including a 13-of-21 mark from 50 yards and beyond.
Carlson is the first kicker the Vikings have drafted since selecting Blair Walsh in the sixth round of the 2012 draft.
He will compete with Kai Forbath for the kicker position. Forbath made 32 of 38 field-goal attempts in 2017 and missed five extra-point attempts (34 of 39).
