It appears three NFC North teams discussed a Kaare Vedvik trade with the Ravens. While the Vikings ended up winning the pursuit, and the Bears were an obvious candidate to acquire a kicker, Chris Tomasson of the St. Paul Pioneer Press tweets the Packers were also in the mix.
Green Bay is set for a 13th Mason Crosby season, but Vedvik has multiple roles. The Packers have used four punters in the past four seasons, with a different one — Tim Masthay, Jake Schum, Justin Vogel, J.K. Scott — spending a full season in that role. A 2018 fifth-round pick, Scott remains in place as the Packers’ punter. It would have obviously been curious to see the Packers trade a Day 3 choice for another punter.
Crosby, though, has one season (at $4.85MM) remaining on his contract. The career-long Packer made 30 of 37 field goal tries last season; four of those misses came on a rough day in Detroit. The soon-to-be 35-year-old kicker made 5 of 7 of his 50-plus-yard attempts in 2018.
The Vikings sent a fifth-round pick to the Ravens for Vedvik, a Norwegian-born specialist who kicked and punted at Marshall. Vedvik’s time as the Thundering Herd’s punter lasted longer than his stay as their kicker, and John Harbaugh used him in both capacities in the Ravens’ preseason opener last week. It remains unclear how the Vikings will deploy Vedvik.