Kicker Greg Joseph leaves the Vikings to sign with the Packers

Greg Joseph could be kicking against the Vikings next season.

Joseph agreed to sign with the Packers on Tuesday, according to his agent Brett Tessler, nearly two weeks after the Vikings let Joseph’s contract expire. Minnesota signed an inexperienced kicker, John Parker Romo, ahead of what appears to be another kicking competition this summer with a likely drafted or undrafted player.

Joseph, who turns 30 in August, will be in another competition of his own.

He joins a Packers roster that already had two kickers: Anders Carlson and Jack Podlesny. Carlson, a 2023 sixth-round pick by Green Bay, is the incumbent and younger brother of former Vikings kicker Daniel Carlson. Podlesny is a second-year kicker whom Joseph already beat in a competition with the Vikings last summer.

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Joseph, a 2018 undrafted free agent from Florida Atlantic, first arrived in Minnesota in 2021 to replace veteran kicker Dan Bailey. He won the starting job that summer against then-rookie Riley Patterson. He also won summer competitions against Gabe Brkic in 2022 and Podlesny last year.

But the Vikings were ready to move on after Joseph ranked 28th in field-goal percentage in back-to-back seasons. Last year, he was solid on extra-point attempts, converting 36 of 38 tries. But he made only 80% of his field goals, including 7 of 13 tries from beyond 40 yards.

He was still routinely clutch, kicking six game-winning field goals that gave the Vikings a lead late in the fourth quarter or overtime over the past two seasons. That included the Vikings’ franchise-record, 61-yard field goal in the closing seconds of a Christmas Eve win over the Giants in 2022. He made all four kicks in his only playoff appearance for the Vikings that season.