Vikings Release Ryan Longwell After Signing Kicker Blair Walsh in the 2012 Draft

This is a huge surprise to most. I'm a little bit shocked myself to be honest. The Vikings drafted Blair Walsh in the 6th round of the NFL draft, and left a lot of people scratching their heads.

Why? They had a plan as always. Release the old guy and start the new guy. They are trying to make the Vikings a younger team.

But what's most surprising is that they weren't so nice about releasing Tom Pellisero says in one of his tweets.

I'm told this was not in any way mutual. #Vikings told Longwell they're moving on. Surprising to say the least.

— Tom Pelissero (@TomPelissero) May 7, 2012

Ryan Longwell will be 38 this season and he's bound to retire some time soon. It's just surprising now.