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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 there are a dozen or more starting kickers 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 1 Results

Rodrigo Blankenship (3 FG attempts, 2 FGs, 2 XPs, 8 points)

Blankenship missed a 42-yard game-winner in overtime, and his (now former) team had to settle for a tie, but his 8 points still tied for 8th among all kickers on the week.

Jake Elliott (1 FG attempt, 1 FG, 5 XPs, 8 points)

The Philadelphia Eagles could hardly be stopped against the Detroit Lions, scoring five touchdowns against just one field goal and scoring the second-highest total of the week. Extra points aren't worth nearly as much for fantasy, but Elliott still scored 8 points, tied for 8th at the position.

Dustin Hopkins (2 FG attempts, 1 FG, 3 XPs, 6 points)

Hopkins missed from 49 yards and lost out on an attempt from 46 yards because his team went for it on 4th-and-1. That's always a risk when you start the Chargers' kicker given their coach's well-deserved reputation for aggressiveness, but it usually pays off in the form of more drives across midfield in the first place. This week, though, Hopkins' six points ranked 17th.

Brett Maher (1 FG attempt, 1 FG, 0 XPs, 3 points)

The Cowboys' offense might have been the most disappointing unit in the league this week as the lack of depth at receiver (and a late injury to quarterback Dak Prescott) left them punchless all evening. Maher's 3 points ranked just 25th among kickers.

Wil Lutz (3 FG attempts, 2 FGs, 1 XP, 7 points)

Wil Lutz hit the upright from 44 yards but otherwise turned in a fairly workmanlike performance, scoring 7 points and tying for 13th at the position.

Results To Date

To date, Rent-a-Kicker has made five weekly recommendations. Those five kickers have averaged 6.4 points, compared to 8.45 in 2021, 7.39 in 2020, and 7.39 in 2019. That average would currently rank just 17th at the position. Our top weekly recommendation averages 8 points, while every highlighted kicker with a great matchup averages 7.33, marks that would rank 8th and 13th, respectively. Data is noisy this early in the season, so we'll wait a few weeks before comparing our results to date against the top kickers by preseason ADP.

Week 2 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.**

A quick note: since publishing, Indianapolis has waived Rodrigo Blankenship and will stage a competition between Chase McLaughlin and Lucas Havrisik to kick for them this week. This... does not impact the rankings in the slightest, as these rankings are based on a player's situation, not his talent. In the future I won't add a note for every time a kicker gets cut after missing a game-winner, but since it's our first of the season, I did want to reaffirm that these things will happen and the model's recommendation applies just as strongly to whoever is brought in as a replacement. The only exception is if a player suffers an injury hours before the game and the team has to rely on someone who is not a natural placekicker to attempt field goals for them.

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