No position is more unpredictable in fantasy football than kickers. Year after year after year, no position has a lower correlation between where they're drafted before the season and where they finish after the season. No position has a lower correlation between how they score in one week and how they score in the next. No position has a lower correlation between projected points and actual points.

In addition, placekicker is the position that has the smallest spread between the best players and the middle-of-the-pack players for fantasy. Finally, most fantasy GMs will only carry one kicker at a time, which means a dozen or more starting kickers are sitting around on waivers at any given time. Given all of this, it rarely makes sense to devote resources to the position. Instead, GMs are best served by rotating through whichever available kicker has the best weekly matchup.

Every week, I'll rank the situations each kicker finds himself in (ignoring the talent of the kicker himself) to help you find perfectly startable production off the waiver wire.

Week 9 Kicker Results

Jake Elliott (1 FG on 2 attempts, 1 XP, 4 points)

In Week 9, Elliott produced one of the worst "bad beats" in Rent-a-Kicker history. He opened the day with an extra point and a 43-yard field goal. He then made an extra point after the Eagles' next offensive touchdown... but the Jaguars were offsides for the attempt, so Philadelphia took the point off the board and attempted a 2-point conversion, which they failed. Then, after their next touchdown, they wanted to make that point back up, so they attempted another 2-point conversion... and failed. Then, after their third touchdown, they wanted to make up the last two points, so they attempted another 2-point conversion... and failed.

A single extra point at any point (such as the one Philadelphia took off the board) would have resulted in nothing but extra-point attempts the rest of the way. Then Elliott hit the upright from 57 yards out late in the game; it was a difficult kick, but it just reinforced that Elliott had the potential for 10 points (which would have ranked 3rd last week) but instead only scored 4 (tied for 21st) despite not playing poorly.

Blake Grupe (3 FGs on 3 attempts, 1 XP, 10 points)

The Saints' struggles against the Carolina Panthers were enough to cost head coach Dennis Allen his job, but Grupe still had a big day with three field goals, including one from 51 yards. The Saints did attempt a 2-point conversion late when an extra point would have given Grupe the highest score of any kicker; instead, he finished tied for 3rd in a down week for the position. 

Will Reichard (0 FGs on 2 attempts, 3 XPs, 3 points)

Another "good process, bad outcome" pick for us; Reichard missed from 53 yards and hit the upright on a 31-yard chip shot, finishing with just three points, good for 25th.

Jake Bates (1 FG on 1 attempt, 3 XPs, 6 points)

Weather impacted the Lions/Packers game, and Detroit passed up two field goal attempts on fourth down in the red zone (both plays resulted in touchdowns and extra points). Still, in a rough week for kickers, Bates' 6 points was still enough for a 14th-place finish.

Joshua Karty (2 FGs on 2 attempts, 2 XPs, 8 points)

Karty kicked a pair of short field goals and a pair of extra points. A touchdown in overtime cost him the opportunity to add a game-winner to his total, but his 8 points still tied for 9th among kickers.

Kicker Results To Date

To date, Rent-a-Kicker has made 45 weekly recommendations. Those 45 kickers have averaged 7.33 points, compared to 7.75 in 2023, 6.82 in 2022, 8.45 in 2021, 7.39 in 2020, and 7.39 in 2019. That average would currently rank 15th at the position. Our top three picks average 8.19 points, which would rank 6th.

Managers selecting randomly from among our top three picks each week would have 73.7 points so far. The Top 12 kickers by preseason ADP were Justin Tucker (79), Brandon Aubrey (79), Harrison Butker (71), Jake Elliott (55), Ka'imi Fairbairn (81), Younghoe Koo (69), Jake Moody (69), Evan McPherson (64), Cameron Dicker (69), Jason Sanders (58), Tyler Bass (72), and Jason Myers (58) (giving each kicker 6 points for every game missed to account for the typical historical replacement value).

Our streamers are now outscoring 9 out of the top 12 kickers from preseason. On average, drafted kickers have scored 68.7 points, about 0.5 points per game less than our streaming recommendations. 

Week 10 Kicker Situations

Here is a list of the teams with the best matchups based on Vegas projected totals and stadium, along with the expected kicker for each team. The top five players who are on waivers in over 50% of leagues based on NFL.com roster percentages are italicized and will be highlighted in next week's column. Also, note that these rankings specifically apply to situations; teams will occasionally change kickers mid-week, but any endorsements apply equally to whatever kicker winds up eventually getting the start.