Kickers are creatures of game script.
In fantasy football that doesn’t make them any different than a lot of running backs and wideouts and tight ends. For those positions, as with kicker, opportunity evaporates with unfriendly game script.
The receiver or tight end sees a dip in routes and targets when their team gets out to a big lead and runs the rock in the second half. The running back ends up with ten carries instead of twenty because his team has to abandon the run as they chase points in a trailing script. In an opportunity-based game, this is something short of ideal.
That’s why we want kickers in our lineups whose teams have a good chance of seeing plenty of neutral or positive game script. Usually this means a team won’t forgo easy field goal opportunities in the second half, down by multiple scores. So there is a process to selecting kickers — even those off the waiver wire.
FF Today
Week 8 Results
- Jason Sanders (NYJ): 15 fantasy points
- Trey Smack (GB): 3 fantasy points
- Evan McPherson (CIN): 6 fantasy points
The Trey Smack experiment went exactly how the haters thought it would go. He didn’t have a field goal try as the Packers had 357 total yards and 27 points against the faltering Carolina defense on Thursday. So it goes. Otherwise it was an OK week.
Week 9 Kicker Options
Eddy Pineiro (SF) vs. Raiders
It’s not often we get to stream a kicker whose team is favored by 9.5 points against the single worst defense in the NFL. That’s what we have here with Pineiro though. He’s set up well here against a Vegas team that has trailed at the league’s eighth highest rate since Week 3.
Quick look at the NFL's worst rush defenses (bottom left quadrant). Raiders really are unspeakably bad against the run and have been for most of the season.
— Denny Carter (@dennycarter.bsky.social) 2026-11-01T17:29:21.641Z
Look for the 49ers to punish the miserable Vegas defense on the ground and, well, score a bunch of points. That could (should) include a few field goal tries from Pineiro. That he’s missed three of his nine field goal attempts this season shouldn’t dissuade you from picking up Pineiro for Week 8.
Dominic Zvada (NYG) at Eagles
Only the Rams and Steelers are giving up more field goal attempts per game than the Birds, whose end-of-days offense usually creates a bunch of neutral and positive game script for their opponents. That, in turn, feeds field goal opportunities, things of that nature.
Brandon Aubrey who? Rookie Dominic Zvada is the best kicker in the division. #nygiants
— TofuNYG 🏈🏳️🌈🗽🇺🇦 🚫👑🖕🧊 (@groguspeak.bsky.social) 2026-10-04T21:46:17.991Z
Zvada, who has multiple field goal tries in every game this season, should have one of the week’s safest kicker floors against Philly. The G-people enter this one as three-point road favorites and the Eagles are allowing 2.33 field goal attempts per game during their six-game losing skid.
Editor’s Note: Daniel Carlson was released by the Raiders on Tuesday, so Denny Carter will crunch the numbers and add a new kicker soon.
