A general tip to improve all league-play across the entire fantasy multiverse is to get rid of the kickers. Please let 2018 be the year that people wake up to the fact that kickers have no place in fantasy football.
VOLATILITY OF KICKERS
First of all, the volatility at the position is insane. The Ram’s Greg Zuerline was the number one kicker in fantasy last year. He had games that ranged from 23 points to a one-point effort in week 11. And it’s not just week-to-week volatility. The position also has more seasonal fluctuations than any other.
Gostkowski is a constant presence in the top three at the position, but outside of the Pats’ kicker, no other guy has made a repeat appearance in the top-three in any of the last five years. Greg the Leg finished 2017 as number one, but the rest of his resume also includes finishes as numbers 30, 26,22, 20 and 25. Why the hell do we as fantasy owners willingly welcome that kind of volatility into our worlds!?
SUPER RANDOM
Not only are kickers themselves extremely volatile, but the scoring system most leagues use is out of touch with reality. Think about it: kickers are brought on to the field only to score points. They don’t block, and they don’t catch passes. They certainly don’t pound the rock. Kickers are brought on solely to have a mostly free opportunity to score. No other player on a fantasy squad has that level of opportunity, and most leagues reward them like crazy for having the easiest path to points.
Most positions are awarded points in a fashion that mimics their NFL scores. A running back scores a six-point TD from the goal line, and he receives six fantasy points. Kickers routinely receive higher scores, sometimes even double! Zuerline scores three points for the Rams, but maybe he scores six points for your opponent because why the hell not, apparently. And those six points might be more than a quarterback scores for throwing a TD which is a way more difficult thing to do. Kickers in fantasy are asinine.
RANDOM ROOKIE
Still not convinced? How about this little gem: In 2017 the undrafted Harrison Butker, kicker for the Kansas Chiefs (don’t pretend like you knew that), scored more fantasy points than Alshon Jeffrey, Golden Tate, Zach Ertz, Jerrick McKinnon, or Stefon Diggs. This kicker that some jerk in your league randomly plucked off of the waiver wire as a bye week filler was basically a WR2. There is no justice in a world that rewards waiver wire kickers like that.
Whats worse, there was no way to know that would happen! None. The guy who had Butker had no freaking clue he would be so valuable. We know this because prior to setting multiple NFL records for a rookie kicker, Butker spent the first few weeks of the NFL season on the Panthers practice squad. Some people will try to tell you that in-depth analysis goes into selecting a good kicker. That “good” kickers, once identified, should be taken in the tenth or eleventh-rounds. Bullcrap. It’s mostly blind, dumb luck. And losing to an inferior team because they happen to randomly have some player fresh off the practice squad that didn’t get blocked while chipping the ball in from 30 yards a few times is the most infuriating thing that can ever happen.
THE STATS
Forget Butker. Here is why kickers need to be removed from fantasy: Two percent of the 963 field goals attempted in the NFL last year were blocked. Two percent. And only 16% of total attempted field goals were missed. Imagine the point totals if running backs were scored that way. Given three to six fantasy points 84% of the times that they touched the ball. Weekly scores would be in the thousands of points. That would be lunacy yet we do precisely that with kickers.
Please put an end to the madness and get rid of kickers in 2018.
