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No one wants to talk about kickers.
They have always been the unspoken part of fantasy football. A stigma exists that prevents both fantasy managers and fantasy analysts from talking openly about kickers, even as the kicker position remains in the vast majority of fantasy football lineups year after year.
Along with precious few analysts doing their best to reject kicker stigma, I have refused to shut up about kickers in fantasy football: How to project them, which kickers profile as good or bad options, and, most importantly, the process around selecting a kicker for season-long purposes or as a streamer off the wire.
It is, in short, my constitutional right to spill digital ink about kickers. Don’t tread on me.
And while no one wants to talk about kickers, everyone wants a little kicker analysis, because again — and I cannot stress this enough — almost every fantasy league on earth has a kicker spot. I know, I know. Your league did away with kickers in 1999.
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This year, like every year, the first handful of kickers going off fantasy draft boards should be fine for fantasy purposes. Justin Tucker, Brandon Aubrey, Younghoe Koo, Harrison Butker, and Jake Elliott should fit the kicker process quite well. They are all attached to high-powered offenses that largely move the ball at will and have game script on their side (we mostly avoid kickers on bad teams because bad teams chase touchdowns and forgo field goals late in games).
While reaching for a kicker beyond the last couple rounds of your draft remains a jailable crime in 37 states, getting one of these elite kickers should give you a reliable season-long option and save you from spending precious brain power on kicker waiver wire plays during the regular season (This is where I tell you Koo recently missed three field goals in a preseason game; do with that what you will).
Below are some kickers you can definitely grab in the second to last or the final round of your upcoming fantasy drafts. Each of these guys, in my humble kicker-loving estimation, are in position to be set-it-and-forget-it fantasy options for folks who miss out on the aforementioned elite tier. I tried to target kickers whose head coaches are less-than-aggressive with fourth down decision making, a metric designed by FTN’s Aaron Schatz.
If these kickers don’t work out, the waiver wire calls out. Please remember at all times: The process.
Greg Zuerlein (NYJ)
Coming off one of his best NFL seasons — including a 93 percent field goal conversion rate — Greg The Leg is among the Jets players primed to benefit from a slightly more stable offense quarterbacked by Aaron Rodgers.
Only three teams — the Rams, Seahawks, and Colts — attempted more field goals than the Jets in 2023. Head coach Robert Saleh, meanwhile, is among the most conservative fourth down decision makers in the game as he desperately tries to hang on to his job.
Zuerlein’s 2023 success makes little sense considering the Jets ran a grand total of 227 plays while leading during their lost season. Only the Patriots, Commanders, Cardinals, and Panthers ran fewer plays with a lead. But a good defense and a coach happy with three-pointers all day every day means Legatron (the zoomers won’t remember) is a dark horse to lead the NFL in field goal tries. And that’s really all we want out of our kickers: Attempts.
Jason Myers (SEA)
If I’m bullish on the Seahawks new-look offense (and I am), then I necessarily have to be bullish on Myers’ fantasy prospects in Geno’s Machine, which will “go brrrrr” in 2024.
The Seahawks in 2023 had the second most field goal tries (42) and Myers was a top-five fantasy kicker despite making a shaky 83 percent of his kicks. This is why we emphasize attempts over everything.
Seattle was fourth in offensive snaps in neutral game script last year. They could be even better in that regard with a more aggressive, pass-first offense in 2024. Myers should benefit.
Cairo Santos (CHI)
I talked with Patrick Daughtery this week on the Rotoworld Football Show about why every skill position player in the Bears roster is being undervalued considering the eye-popping play of Caleb Williams in two preseason outings. The kid has It, and It could power a bunch of Chicago players to outstanding fantasy campaigns.
That includes Santos, who in 2023 was fantasy’s third highest scoring kicker, scoring at least eight fantasy points in 11 games. The mainstream media won’t tell you this, but I will.
Santos benefited bigly from positive game script generated by a solid Chicago defense. Over the season’s second half, only seven teams had more offensive snaps with the lead. Caleb’s ability to sustain drives combined with a good defense should once again create a fantasy-friendly environment for Santos. Just beware of the ice cyclones and whatnot he’ll face in Bears home games in November and December.
Matt Gay (IND)
Gay somehow finished as a top-five fantasy kicker last year with Gardner Minshew at the helm of the Indy offense. It’s not that the Colts enjoyed a bunch of weekly positive game script -- they had a lead as often as the Raiders and Saints -- but that head coach Shane Steichen is ultra-conservative with his fourth down decision making.
Only the jobless Bill Belichick and his failed acolyte Josh McDaniel were rated by FTN’s Aaron Schatz as less aggressive than Steichen in 2023. Steichen, who I’m told is a great play caller, loves his field goals more than anyone in the NFL. This man is salivating over kicking it on fourth and two from the five yard line, though Anthony Richardson’s presence might change that calculus.
An 86 percent field goal kicker over his five NFL seasons, Gay is far from elite, but ample opportunity means that probably doesn’t matter.
Joshua Karty (LAR)
Stop asking if I knew about Karty before I researched this article. Of course I knew about him. I’ve tracked his career since middle school. How dare you question my commitment to the bit.
Karty has a lot going for him in 2024. The Rams are fresh off leading the NFL in field goal tries in 2023, and according to FTN’s Schatz, Rams head coach Sean McVay was last season’s fifth most conservative decision maker. It’s not exactly a new development for McVay; the man has sent out the field goal kicker on fourth down much more often than you’d think over his seven years with the Rams.
Karty’s pedigree is excellent, in case you were wondering (though it doesn’t really matter if a kicker is good, we just want attempts). In his final three seasons at Stanford, Karty converted 51 of 60 field goal tries and 72 of his 73 extra point attempts. Karty made 41 of 45 field goal attempts over his final two collegiate seasons. He’ll be available with the last pick of your draft.
Ka’imi Fairbairn (HOU)
I’ve been touting Fairbairn since the zoomers were in diapers, and I won’t stop now.
Attached to a high-octane, C.J. Stroud-led Texans offense, Fairbairn — who last season had the fifth most field goal tries — should be a perfectly reliable fantasy option in 2024. He’s a career 88 percent field goal kicker and pretty solid from distance. If you’re wondering, Texans head coach DeMeco Ryans was the tenth least aggressive fourth down decision maker last year.
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