Ravens: 3 teams that could trade for Jake Verity

1. The Ravens could trade Jake Verity to the Minnesota Vikings

Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on…the Vikings’ front office?

We’ll admit Minnesota probably won’t take the “promising undrafted kicker” bait from Baltimore a second time, but the idea is still worth entertaining.

As mentioned earlier, the Vikings traded a fifth-round pick for the Ravens’ backup kicker Kaare Vedvik in 2019.

Vedvik, who scored a 55-yard field goal and launched two 50-plus yard punts in a preseason game against Jacksonville, seemed to be the real deal.

But once Vedvik got to Minnesota, his future with the team started to crumble. He hit just one of four field-goal attempts and ended up losing the starting position to Dan Bailey.

Vedvik was waived before the end of the season while the Ravens flipped their fifth-rounder for prolific sack artist Calais Campbell.

Minnesota got badly burned before, so why would they go down the same road?

A few weeks ago, the Vikings waived rookie Riley Patterson which means Greg Joseph gets the starting kicker job despite last playing an NFL game in 2019.

That’s right: the last time Joseph took the field was in Tennessee two years ago, when he made all of his extra points but didn’t attempt a field goal. The last field goal he made was in Cleveland in 2018, and Joseph posted a pretty decent 85 percent field goal completion rate that year.

Still, as we’ve emphasized, the guy’s been out of work for two years.

Joseph made both his field goals in the Viking’s preseason loss to Denver, but the name of his game so far has been “small sample size.” He’s only played in 16 career games and kicked in 14 of those.

Jake Verity isn’t exactly “proven” talent either, but he’s less of a wild card than Vedvik was and has a higher ceiling than Joseph.

The odds of Minnesota forking over a draft pick are pretty close to zero, but then again, plenty in the Vikings camp are still unvaccinated, so there’s no telling what they’ll believe.

History may cease to repeat itself this time since Minnesota might actually have faith in Joseph. While we’re banking on the Vikings’ short memories, we also want Verity to play for a team that appreciates him and will help him grow.

Minnesota, your move.