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Don’t Draft A Kicker Strategy (2021 Fantasy Football)

Don’t Draft A Kicker Strategy (2021 Fantasy Football)

Kickers are so polarizing. Everyone in your fantasy football league has an opinion on them. Either you want them to perish from fantasy football, or they are part of the game. Regardless of your preference, you need to have a strategy if you play in a league with a K slot.

Don’t draft a kicker. That’s it. That is the strategy.

Barring a tragic rule in your league constitution requiring all teams to select a kicker on draft day, any smart fantasy player should forego taking one. Before I tell you what you should do instead, let’s look at why drafting a kicker is unnecessary.

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Replacement Level is ALWAYS Available

Last season, 18 kickers averaged between 8.0 and 9.8 fantasy points per game. Only two Ks were more productive; Younghoe Koo and Jason Sanders scored 11.2 and 10.8 points per game, respectively. That group of 18 kickers scored so similarly that in 12-team leagues, the waiver wire was littered with top-10 options weekly.

With replacement-level kickers so widely available, it makes little sense to invest a draft pick on one. Instead, put in a claim just before Week 1. You may even still end up with the highest-scoring kicker for the season!

Undrafted Kickers Are Still Good

Koo performed well as the 10th kicker off the board in 2020 and performed well. Sanders, the top-scoring kicker, was undrafted in almost every format with a K24 ADP. To put that in perspective, the other 11 teams in your league could have each drafted two kickers, and Sanders would have still been sitting there in your queue at pick 298.

Sanders isn’t the only example of an undrafted kicker turning into a weekly fantasy stalwart. Tyler Bass and Rodrigo Blankenship each lasted beyond pick 300 in fantasy drafts last season. Bass finished with a 9.8 PPG average while Blankenship went for 9.4. Both were top-six kickers by year’s end, and you didn’t have to use a Round 15 or 16 pick on either one.

What To Do Instead of Drafting a Kicker

Standard fantasy football drafts comprise of 16 rounds. Most players wait until the final two to add a kicker. These are picks 170 -194, typically. Instead of blindly choosing a K with one of those selections this year, take a shot on a wide receiver.

Wide receiver drafting is not nearly as efficient as other fantasy positions, so give yourself another chance to get it right.

In 2020, a trio of WRs posted ADPs greater than 170 overall and averaged 173 fantasy points on the year, outscoring every single kicker. They weren’t the only ones either; 11 of the top-50 wide receivers in Half PPR scoring were drafted after pick 170. Here are the three I have highlighted:

This year, instead of taking Greg Zuerlein at pick 215, select one of the following under-drafted wideouts and see how the preseason shakes out. You may end up with a top-50 wide receiver AND a top-five kicker!

And if you like the Don’t Draft a Kicker Strategy, you will love the Don’t Draft a D/ST Strategy.

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Aaron Pags is a featured writer at FantasyPros. For more from Aaron, check out his archive and follow him @FantasyTriage.

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