There isn’t a better feeling as a football fan than watching your favorite team’s kicker nailing a game-winning field goal as time expires. However, kickers in fantasy football have become polarizing, with more leagues dropping them each year. If your fantasy football league still has a kicker spot, read my strategy guide from last season
However, the perfect kicker draft strategy is not to draft one, even if your fantasy league requires you to pick a kicker. Some fantasy platforms will force you to select a kicker before the draft ends. If that is the case, wait until the final round, pick a random kicker and immediately drop them after the draft.
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Fantasy Football Draft Strategy: Kickers
Fantasy players can do so many better things with that draft pick than selecting a kicker. Even if your league has a starting kicker spot, fantasy players can and should wait until the day before Week 1 to add one to their roster.
Kickers are a Dime a Dozen
Typically, most of the top 10 kickers score in the same range at the end of the season. Last year, the top five kickers scored an average of 171.7 fantasy points for the season, or 10.4 per game. Jason Myers was a slight outlier as the top-scoring kicker in 2025, totaling 189 fantasy points.
Behind Myers were Ka’imi Fairbairn (178 fantasy points), Brandon Aubrey (177.6), Cameron Dicker (158), Cam Little (156), Will Reichard (152) and Chase McLaughlin (150). Furthermore, the next four highest-scoring kickers scored between 140 and 143 fantasy points last year.
Five kickers averaged double-digit fantasy points per game in 2025. However, Spencer Shrader (11) and Ben Sauls (10.3) played in eight combined games, not enough for a reliable sample size. Meanwhile, Fairbairn (11.9), Myers (11) and Aubrey (10.4) were the only kickers to average double-digit fantasy points per game last season while playing in at least six contests.
More importantly, among the 28 kickers to play in double-digit contests last season, 20 averaged between 7.6 and 9.6 fantasy points per game, only a two-point per outing difference.
By comparison, three of the 28 kickers averaged double-digit fantasy points per game while five failed to reach the 7.6 mark. Whether fantasy players stick with one kicker for the season or mix and match based on matchups and changes by NFL teams, kickers are mostly a dime a dozen.
Stream the Position
Kickers are unpredictable from one week to another. Instead of paying the price to draft a big-name kicker like Brandon Aubrey or Ka’imi Fairbairn, fantasy players should stream the position as they do with defenses. Several factors go into streaming kickers, including the matchup, weather, over/under total and projected game flow.
Furthermore, some kickers don’t get drafted but become productive for fantasy players, while others who get picked turn into busts every year. However, kickers drafted in the top 10 did well last season, as seven of them finished in the top 10, including four in the top five. Yet, two of the three drafted in the top 10 finished outside of the top 22 kickers.
Meanwhile, the three kickers who finished inside the top 10 had an average draft position (ADP) in the 20s. By comparison, Jason Myers was the K28 in ADP but finished as the K1. Furthermore, Will Reichard was the K20 in ADP but finished as the K6, while Andy Borregales was the K26 in ADP but finished as the K9 despite being a rookie.
More importantly, fantasy players are better off streaming matchups rather than trying to find someone they can start all season long. Only three kickers averaged double-digit fantasy points per game last season while playing in at least six contests.
By comparison, the Arizona Cardinals (10.8) and New York Jets (10.4) surrendered double-digit fantasy points per game to kickers.
Furthermore, if fantasy players had streamed kickers every week against the Cardinals, Jets, Saints, Colts, Tennessee and Cowboys, they would have scored an average of 9.8 fantasy points per game from the position. That 9.8 fantasy points per game average would have been the K4 over a 17-game pace last season.
Kickers Aren’t League Winners
Every fantasy football expert will tell you to shoot for league-winning upside in the final rounds of your draft. However, kickers aren’t league winners. Instead of drafting a kicker, fantasy players could use that last-round draft pick on a high-upside player like a handcuff or competition player. This idea also applies to those with a D/ST spot in their starting lineup.
On the slim chance that Jahmyr Gibbs suffers a torn ACL three days before the start of the regular season, fantasy players would much rather have used a late-round pick on Isiah Pacheco over any kicker. Furthermore, fantasy players can use the roster spot to lock up a training camp battle instead of having to pick one player or the other.
For example, fantasy players can draft Tre Tucker and Jalen Nailor in the later rounds of their draft and wait until Week 1 to see who wins the training camp battle to be the Las Vegas Raiders’ No. 1 wide receiver. The winner of that battle could have sleeper value, especially if Fernando Mendoza takes over under center early.
It is easier to make this draft move when you don’t have a kicker tying up a spot on your roster before Week 1. Yet, the only cost to making that move is remembering to add a Week 1 kicker (and possibly D/ST) to your roster before opening weekend. While this is slightly off-topic, fantasy players can similarly use this strategy throughout the season during the waiver wire period.
Instead of plucking your kicker for the week off the waiver wire on Tuesday, grab the backup running back to a banged-up starter. While the starter will likely play, there is a chance he could get ruled out on Friday, giving fantasy players a potential top-20 player for the week because you waited to add a kicker until the weekend.
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Mike Fanelli is a featured writer at FantasyPros. For more from Mike, check out his archive and follow him @Mike_NFL2.