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 14 Results

Mike Badgley (3 FG attempts, 2 FGs, 4 XPs, 10 points)

Badgley missed a 47-yard attempt that would have left him the top scorer of the week, but even without it, a pair of 4th-quarter field goals left him with 10 points and a 6th-place weekly finish.

Evan McPherson (1 FG attempt, 1 FG, 2 XPs, 5 points)

The Bengals, short a pair of receivers, had a slow offensive game against the Browns, and McPherson missed one of his extra point attempts. Thanks to byes and a slew of uninspiring performances, though, McPherson's five points on the week still tied for 15th.

Jake Elliott (2 FG attempts, 2 FGs, 6 XPs, 12 points)

It'd still be great (for our purposes) if the Eagles scored fewer touchdowns and more field goals, but any time you're kicking six extra points, your kicker is probably going to finish with an okay day. In this case, Elliott was more than just okay; his 12 points led all scorers in Week 14.

Greg Joseph (1 FG attempt, 1 FG, 2 XPs, 5 points)

Minnesota did pass on a 40-yard field goal attempt in the 3rd quarter as they trailed by 15, but otherwise were held back by a poor rushing performance against a previously-porous Lions defense. Joseph's five points tied for 15th.

Jason Sanders (1 FG attempt, 1 FG, 2 XPs, 5 points)

Sanders was having an awful showing against the Chargers (through no fault of his own) until a 55-yard kick with less than two minutes left. It didn't mean anything for the Dolphins because they failed to recover the ensuing onside kick, but for managers with Sanders on their team, it meant three more points and yet another tie for 15th at the position.

Results To Date

To date, Rent-a-Kicker has made 70 weekly recommendations. Those 70 kickers have averaged 6.76 points, compared to 8.45 in 2021, 7.39 in 2020, 7.65 in 2019, and 7.43 in 2018. That average would currently rank 15th at the position (after giving 6 points to every kicker to account for byes). Our top weekly recommendation averages just 6.36 points, and every highlighted kicker with a great matchup averages 6.71, marks that would rank 21st and 15th.

Here are the Top 12 kickers by preseason ADP along with how many points they've scored to date in parentheses: Justin Tucker (119), Tyler Bass (121), Matt Gay (86), Harrison Butker (102), Daniel Carlson (116), Evan McPherson (97), Matt Prater (74), Ryan Succop (96), Brandon McManus (90), Nick Folk (114), Dustin Hopkins (87), and Rodrigo Blankenship (82). (All kickers are credited with 6 additional points for every week they missed)

So far, the Top 12 kickers by preseason ADP average 98.7 points compared to 94 from the average of all of our great plays.

Rent-a-Kicker is officially on a bit of a heater. After three strong weeks, our "Top Play" average has risen from 5.27 to 6.36 and our "Great Play" average has risen from 6.19 to 6.71. I'd love to close strong in the fantasy playoffs to help wash away the taste of an otherwise disappointing season for the model.

Week 15 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.**

Great Plays

Chiefs (Harrison Butker)
**Eagles (Jake Elliott)
Cowboys (Brett Maher)
**Vikings (Greg Joseph)

Good Plays

**Chargers (Dustin Hopkins/Cameron Dicker)
Bills (Tyler Bass)
**Saints (Wil Lutz)

Neutral Plays

**Packers (Mason Crosby)
49ers (Robbie Gould)
Bengals (Evan McPherson)
Raiders (Daniel Carlson)
Jets (Greg Zuerlein)
Titans (Randy Bullock)
Colts (Chase McLaughlin)

Poor Plays

Commanders (Joey Slye)
Patriots (Nick Folk)
Lions (Mike Badgley)
Panthers (Eddie Pineiro)
Browns (Cade York)
Falcons (Younghoe Koo)
Broncos (Brandon McManus)

Avoid at All Costs

Jaguars (Riley Patterson)
Seahawks (Jason Myers)
Buccaneers (Ryan Succop)
Cardinals (Matt Prater)
Bears (Cairo Santos)
Steelers (Chris Boswell)
Texans (Kaimi Fairbairn)
Ravens (Justin Tucker)
Giants (Graham Gano)
Dolphins (Jason Sanders)
Rams (Matt Gay)