Place Kicker Drafting Advice
BE SURE OF THE SCORING RULES
WHEN IT COMES TO TAKING A KICKER!
If missed field goals count as negative points, try to get a good/great kicker.
If missed field goals don't count against you, go for quantity over quality of kicks.
Do not pick a kicker in any of the first 16 rounds of your fantasy football draft; it will almost always be a wasted pick. The only exception is if one of the rounds turns into the “place kicker round.” Most of the time, it only takes one person drafting a place kicker to spark a flood of place kicker picks.
If you miss out on the initial flood of picks and all of the elite kickers are gone, wait until free agency to get your kicker. I can almost guarantee that no one in your fantasy football league will pick two kickers in the draft (at least no competent fantasy football manager will do so). Usually the difference in points between the elite kickers and the second tier kickers isn’t that large, so don’t worry if you miss out on one of the top tier place kickers.
Every year there is some place kicker that racks up a huge amount of field goals. The only trouble is that the same kicker won't often do this from year to year. Field goals are more an indication of an offense that stalls out at the 30 yard line than a great kicker. Every year there are at least two or three teams whose offense will constantly stall out and not score touchdowns.
Try to find one of these teams and you can save some of your fantasy picks for more important positions. This doesn’t mean you want to pick the kicker on the worst offensive team; because more likely than not, the team will be punting more often then they will be kicking field goals.