When do i draft a kicker

Regardless of your preference, you need to have a strategy if you play in a league with a K slot. Barring a tragic rule in your league constitution requiring all teams to select a kicker on draft day, any smart fantasy player should forego taking one.

Last season, 18 kickers averaged between 8. That group of 18 kickers scored so similarly that in team leagues, the waiver wire was littered with top options weekly. With replacement-level kickers so widely available, it makes little sense to invest a draft pick on one. Instead, put in a claim just before Week 1. You may even still end up with the highest-scoring kicker for the season!

Koo performed well as the 10th kicker off the board in and performed well. Sanders, the top-scoring kicker, was undrafted in almost every format with a K24 ADP. To put that in perspective, the other 11 teams in your league could have each drafted two kickers , and Sanders would have still been sitting there in your queue at pick Tyler Bass and Rodrigo Blankenship each lasted beyond pick in fantasy drafts last season.

Bass finished with a 9. Standard fantasy football drafts comprise of 16 rounds. Most players wait until the final two to add a kicker. We're going to do some mock drafts for the season -- today.

In our first mock draft, when each team's pick comes around, the owner will simply select whatever available player scored the most points in Each team will fill a starting lineup only, consisting of one quarterback, two running backs, three wide receivers and one player each at tight end, kicker and team defense.

If the highest-scoring available player won't fit it their starting lineup, they'll take the first player on the list of scoring leaders who does. So, given his unconscious season, Tom Brady becomes the first player taken, LaDainian Tomlinson goes second, and so on, until all 10 teams have selected a complete nine-player starting lineup that optimizes each owner's perfect predictive abilities.

Drafting in this fashion yields the following draft breakdown:. Based on the actual value of each player to his fantasy team, we can see that team defenses provided the least value, and should have been waited on the longest. Surprisingly, though, kickers started to go as early as Round 5, and by the end of Round 7, all 10 teams had drafted a kicker. Wide receivers such as Chris Chambers , Andre Johnson and Donald Driver , who simply didn't put up big final numbers, were all taken after kickers.

Meanwhile, four teams waited until their final pick to draft a tight end. This hasn't debunked the "draft a kicker last" theory just yet, but it certainly does begin to put a ceiling on when the absolutely earliest time to select one is. But most leagues don't draft just a starting lineup -- there's a bench to think about as well.

So let's see how much the numbers change if we were to change the rules of our Hindsight League draft to fit a roster consisting of two quarterbacks, four running backs, six wide receivers, two tight ends and one player each at kicker and team defense. The results are as follows:. Allowing teams to stock their benches before completing a starting lineup does change things a bit, but kickers are still being taken, on average, before the final starting wide receiver. Tight ends lose about three rounds of value when you factor in the backups, and it's obvious that the backup tight end is little more than an afterthought.

So it seems that given the value of having the best kicker versus having the best fourth running back, it would make sense to jump the gun and use an early pick on a kicker, wouldn't it? As Lee Corso would say, "Not so fast, my friend! It's easy to look back at the end of a season and note that the top kickers were all worth a sixth- or seventh-round pick. But sitting there on draft day, are you able to tell me which kickers will be the ones at the top of the scoring list?

Most people would have thought Adam Vinatieri , Jeff Wilkins and Nate Kaeding were pretty much sure things for the season. They certainly were ranked high enough. But guess what? None of these three kickers managed to finish in the top 10 in scoring in standard scoring systems, and Wilkins didn't even reach the top As for the actual kicking leaders?

Okay, so let's say you did somehow tap into mystical forces and determine that Mason Crosby was the right kicker to select. But was he truly worth a sixth-round pick, even if you did know for certain that he'd score more than any other player you could have picked at that slot? The answer is still a resounding no! Let's assume it's Round 6 of your draft and every team has selected one quarterback, two running backs and two wide receivers.

It's your pick. Plenty of good options available to you here. Or, finally, a starting tight end such as Jason Witten or Antonio Gates. Then there's Crosby. Again, this assumes the players drafted to this point would ultimately end up being the highest scorers for the year. But it is actually far more likely that some of these running backs and wide receivers were already drafted, based on expectations, and that players who ended up being even more valuable to own, such as Wes Welker and Greg Jennings , or Ryan Grant and Kenny Watson would still be available here.

How can you take Crosby here? What would you lose by waiting? Let's say you decided to wait until the last pick to get your kicker, and based on your brilliant clairvoyance, you accurately select the 10th-best kicker although you'd probably end up with a higher-scoring kicker since not everyone in your league is as psychic as you, right? Take a look at this list, using statistics:. What do you risk by waiting to draft the No. Twenty-seven points over 16 weeks.

That's all. Kickers get injured and sometimes they struggle. Into the fold steps another unheard-of leg to make a name for himself. Rookie Jose Borregales is not struggling though, putting more pressure on Succop. That means Borregales has a great chance of landing with another team in need of a leg.

Both players are drilling yard kicks with regularity in practice. But please know that the overall coolness factor of your team will be judged on how well you honor the unsung heroes of the kicking position. Cookie banner We use cookies and other tracking technologies to improve your browsing experience on our site, show personalized content and targeted ads, analyze site traffic, and understand where our audiences come from. By choosing I Accept , you consent to our use of cookies and other tracking technologies.

When should I draft a kicker in my fantasy football draft and who should I draft.