It's kind of weird to say that the Vikings just signed the "second most accurate kicker" in the history of the NFL, who oddly enough was available for the taking two weeks into the 2018 NFL season.
Leads you to wonder, why exactly was Bailey available and why did the Cowboys cut ties with him this past September?
Well, Jerry Jones explained. That's right, Jerry Jones found a microphone that was ready for him to talk and explained. Actually, it came via his radio show on 105.3 The Fan in Dallas.
"Well I think we got real comfortable with how [Brett] Maher was kicking, what kind of offseason he had," Jones said. "But we, as you well know, felt that we could really get the same strategy, same impact that a kicker like Bailey gives us, we felt we could get that from another guy who fit our cap, fit our team better"
Here's an explanation of the cap situation that Jones referred to.
Bailey was in the midst of a gigantic 7-year $22.5 million contract which was set to pay him $3.4 million in each of the next three seasons. That wasn't cool (anymore) with Jerry Jones.
His replacement, Brett Maher is currently making on $480,000 this season. That's a big difference.
After touching on the money, Jones would go on to add this as well...
"It’s what the other boy did. As much as Maher did as much as anything. He was very consistent, and if you had been at practice you could have probably seen, just in general, that we felt like the other player could perform as well and under the circumstances, that’s how you make your decisions."
Bailey did have his worst season as a professional last season converting 75% of his FGs, but prior seasons saw him go 84.4%, 93.8%, 86.2%, 93.3%, 93.5%, and 86.5%.
We'll take that here in Minnesota!