Fantasy Advice: Kickers

Many people who are new to fantasy football may think kickers just play a simple role, one where it oesn’t really matter who fills the roster spot. But it’s quite the contrary to people who are really serious about fantasy football. Kickers can make or break a team; a good kicker can be the difference between a 15-1 season and a 10-6 season. Kickers can win or lose games for you, believe it or not. I obviously wouldn’t expect you to take a kicker with an early pick, but you want to aim for a top notch kicker potentially with a 9th or 10th round pick or so, depending on who is available. I like to get a kicker before I pick my defense, but that’s just my own personal strategy.

But without further ado, here’s a list of kickers I would suggest taking a look at with an early-ish pick. (8th, 9th, or 10th rounder)

1. Blair Walsh,  Vikings

As a Vikings fan myself, my opponents chuckled at me when I took Walsh as my kicker. Boy did I prove them wrong.  We’ve seen Walsh’s ability to kick from just about anywhere on the field, which is why I see him as my number one fantasy kicker for this year. There are other guys that you can argue to be the number one pick, but I just feel that Walsh has more potential to get you higher points, especially with AP running the ball down the field each drive.

2. Stephen Gostkowski, Patriots

He gets a lot of field goal attempts, and with the Pat’s offensive weapons starting to implode, Gostkowski could be looking at even more field goals this season. That’s why he’s my number 2 fantasy kicker.

3. Matt Bryant, Falcons

Bryant has close to a 90% FG percentage, 88 of 98 FGs over three seasons with the Falcons, and there’s no reason to expect him to keep the trend going. He’s working with one of the league’s top offenses, so I like Bryant at 3 just because of the possibilities to score fantasy points.