Although some more competitive leagues are starting to get rid of them, the vast majority of fantasy football leagues still include a kicker slot. Depending on the size of the rest of the lineup, kickers usually account for around 10% of the players being started in a given fantasy football league every week. Despite this, they are usually an afterthought in fantasy draft discourse.
While this isn’t without good reason (spoiler alert), there’s at least something to be gained from taking a step back and considering the best way to approach fantasy’s least sexy position on draft night. That’s what this article is here to do, so let’s get right into it.
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Fantasy Football Draft Strategy: Kickers
Wait Until the Last Round
I know this is the kicker draft article, but that doesn’t change the facts: Selecting a kicker before the final round of your draft is almost always a mistake. This piece of advice has become accepted consensus in fantasy spaces for a multitude of reasons, so let’s start this article by going through them.
First, the top kickers simply score fewer fantasy points than the top players at other positions. In 2025, Houston’s Ka’imi Fairbairn led the position with 12.9 points per game (PPG). In half-PPR scoring, that landed him as the 54th player overall, behind 16 running backs, nine wide receivers, one tight end and a slew of quarterbacks. However, 54 is still a respectable spot.
What’s more important than the total points that kickers score is the relative number of points they score. While Fairbairn finished with 12.9 points per game (K12), Detroit’s Jake Bates averaged 8.9. Four points per game is a non-negligible gap, but it’s not too impressive for the difference between the position’s leading scorer and the worst-possible starter (assuming 12 teams).
For the other positions, the PPG gaps between their first and 12th-ranked players (minimum eight games) — let alone the gaps to the actual last starters — were 7.4 (RB), 7.3 (WR), 6.1 (TE) and 4.0 (QB).
Quarterback did an identical difference, and, in 1-QB leagues, this is actually the gap between the best and worst starting options. This could be interpreted as a pro-kicker data point, but I would argue it says more about quarterbacks. The depth at the position is why the late-round quarterback strategy is tempting.
However, I’ve really been burying the lede. Far more important than the fact that kickers don’t score many points and that the top options aren’t that different from the worst is that it’s very difficult to predict who those top options will be before the season. At the same time, weekly kicker scoring is heavily dependent on matchup and situation, making it very possible to stream above-average production at the position.
Let’s take a look at historical data to back up this claim. Unfortunately for my point, 2025 was actually a remarkably good year (relatively, anyway) for the accuracy of preseason kicker average draft position (ADP). Even still, the results were messy.
The K1 in total points, Jason Myers, went undrafted in 99% of leagues with a K28 ADP. Meanwhile, Brandon Aubrey, whom managers were drafting in the middle rounds coming off back-to-back K1 overall finishes, fell to K3 in PPG. That might not sound too bad, but it put him a measly two points per game ahead of replacement-level options.
If we go slightly further back to the previous two years, things really fall apart. In both 2023 and 2024, the seventh through 12th kickers in ADP (kickers you get if you ignore the position) scored more points on average than the top six options.
In 2024, five of the first six drafted kickers, including the top two, failed to finish as top-12 scorers. In 2023, the average PPG rank of the first six kickers by ADP was 15.8. I could keep listing examples and data, but please just take my word for it: The historical success rate of highly-drafted kickers, even the top few options, is brutal.
Target Top-Tier Offenses
I’ve hopefully convinced you that drafting a kicker before you absolutely have to is a losing move. But, in most leagues, you will eventually have to draft a kicker. If your goal is to draft someone you can plug into your lineup and forget about for the rest of the season, my top recommendation is to target a kicker on a theoretically elite offense.
Not all top kickers play for teams with top offenses, and not all top offenses generate top kickers. But, as a general rule, good offenses (and good teams more generally) are more likely to put their kickers in positions to succeed, providing additional extra-point and field-goal opportunities.
Start Streaming on Draft Night
As I alluded to earlier, it’s very possible to stream your way to quality kicker production. It’s actually my recommended approach to the position. If you’re willing to put in the effort, you’ll probably have better results playing the matchups (and the weather) than relying on the same leg every week.
If your long-term goal is to have a set-and-forget option, streaming through the early season is also a great way to stumble into a surprising stud, a la Jason Myers from last season (look for offenses that are performing better than expected).
With this in mind, we might as well start streaming as early as possible. This could even mean not drafting a kicker at all if your league’s platform allows it (notably, the Sleeper app does).
Especially if your draft takes place well before Week 1, you can get an edge by stashing a high-upside handcuff with that extra spot, just in case something crazy happens — just don’t forget to add a kicker before kickoff.
Otherwise, just treat the final round of your draft the same way you would the waiver wire when streaming midseason. Don’t consider season-long outlooks. Instead, consider Week 1 situations: Vegas’ weekly team totals are a great place to start, and prioritize kickers in domes if you can.
Don’t ignore kicker talent entirely, but don’t overweight it — the majority of kicks taken each week are relative gimmes for all NFL kickers. As the reigning second-most accurate weekly kicker ranker on FantasyPros, I’ll also take this time to plug my own rankings. Subvertadown also has a standout streaming model for the position.
The Bottom Line Crossbar
It’s a popular saying, but it’s not true that “kickers don’t matter.” What is true is that season-long kicker production has historically been very unpredictable, so spending any draft capital at all on the position is a mistake.
Instead, the best approach is to plan to stream the position and draft entirely based on Week 1 outlooks. If you want to take a more hands-off approach, target a player on a good offense, especially a long-term established starter. Happy drafting, and may the doinks be in your favor.
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Ted Chmyz is a fantasy football contributor for FantasyPros.com. Find him on Twitter and Bluesky @Tchmyz for more fantasy content or to ask questions.
