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why are kickers even ranked? (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter Ballstein
- Start date
footballnerd
Footballguy
Well you def don't want to sign one that misses a lot or on an offense that can't move the ball close enough for a FG.
But considering most fantasy leagues only use the top 10 - 16 kickers in the league, more than likely you'll get a competitive one. That's why I just draft kickers last.
But considering most fantasy leagues only use the top 10 - 16 kickers in the league, more than likely you'll get a competitive one. That's why I just draft kickers last.
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TommyGilmore
Footballguy
It's not a total crapshoot, but the margin of error is much wider. You can be fairly certain that the Philly kicker will outscore the Kansas City kicker over the entire season, but the week-to-week scores will fluctuate.
Jayrod
Footballguy
Because we are fantasy football nerds, that's why.There are IDP leagues, return yardage leagues, etc. I've even heard of leagues using punters and O-linemen. Seriously. Most leagues use kickers and it is simply something else to consider.Check out some of the IDP rankings if you want to see things really turn upside down. Now THAT'S a weekly crapshoot.
Ozymandias
Footballguy
Based on our scoring:
WR #1 (H.Ward) in week 1; #14 in week 2; #74 in week 3.
WR #1 (Boldin) in week 2; #36 in week 1; #17 in week 3.
WR #1 (B.Lloyd) in week 3; #77 in week 1; #17 in week 2.
RB #1 (Parker) in week 1; #31 in week 2; #74 in week 3.
RB #1 (Westbrook) in week 2; #4 in week 1; #92 in week 3.
RB #1 (R.Brown) in week 3; #49 in week 1; #22 in week 2.
How's that for variation?
WR #1 (H.Ward) in week 1; #14 in week 2; #74 in week 3.
WR #1 (Boldin) in week 2; #36 in week 1; #17 in week 3.
WR #1 (B.Lloyd) in week 3; #77 in week 1; #17 in week 2.
RB #1 (Parker) in week 1; #31 in week 2; #74 in week 3.
RB #1 (Westbrook) in week 2; #4 in week 1; #92 in week 3.
RB #1 (R.Brown) in week 3; #49 in week 1; #22 in week 2.
How's that for variation?
littletank
Footballguy
Yeah, I've tried playing kicker matchups based on Hermans rankings and been burned every time.
Abstract
Footballguy
Gasp!! You mean people draft kickers BEFORE the last round? WOW
Chaos Commish
Footballguy
In my two favorite leagues kickers were banned in 2001. I highly recommend it. Especially in your money leagues where luck should be minimized.
Ozymandias
Footballguy
Now let's look at the kickers:K #1 (Kasay) in week #1; #19 in week 2; #28 in week 3.K #1 (Longwell) in week 2; #13 in week 1; #19 in week 3.K#1 (Carney) in week 3; #7 in week 1; #13 in week 2.It doesn't appear to me that there is much more variation with kickers than there is with the other positions. Yes, there is a certain amount of luck involved, but ask Michael Pittman about luck: 19 rushes, 4 td's.
I Am Rick James
Footballguy
Getting rid of them is a great idea! But somehow I think the rest of the league will just say no. The next best thing is to minimize their scoring.
tombonneau
Footballguy
Well, to be more fair, you'd have to look at the standard deviation of kickers rankings (or points per game) from week-to-week vs. other positions. With this analysis, you are only looking at the #1 positional producer in a given week. So you aren't showing the likes of Marion Barber who hasn't bee the #1 RB but has pretty much been top 3 each week.I actually find kickers for high-scoring teams to be some of the most consistent scorers. I had Gostowski last year, and he seemed to be good for 7-12 points each and every week. Sure, the 12 point and 15 point games are rare because they aren't booting a lot of FGs, but you aren't going to get many 2 or 3 point week.I picked Prater off the wire in Week 1 when it was clear that Denver was going to be a high scoring team, and he's been 11/9/10 through three weeks. I think that's fairly easy to predict & rank.On a side note, shame on FBGs for *just this week* IDing Prater as **POTENTIAL WAIVER WIRE GEM**. Tsk tsk. Should have been on that after one week. I wonder how many paying subscribers are now going to lose their league because of this lack of foresight?
Holy Schneikes
Footballguy
I picked up Prater in every league I'm in before the season started precisely because there ARE kicker trends that can be identified. The easiest one? The Denver kicker has been in the top 10 11 out of the last 13 years, 12 out of 14 if you count this year so far. The other two years were close and 5 of those years were top 4. Frankly, I was shocked that so many people were "sleeping" on Prater going into this season. I had very little trouble getting him for almost nothing because are afraid to look silly and go get a kicker before they draft a RB #7 they will very likely dump within a week or two. God forbid you draft a kicker in the NEXT to last round and get a nice little advantage in your league every week from a STARTER.I sure as heck wasn't going to advertise it here before the season, but I was VERY surprised to see how lowly he was ranked on a lot of "expert" lists.Week to week, it IS a crapshoot and I would never play "matchups" with a kicker. But for those of you who want to ban kickers because of inconsistency, find me more consistent (over the course of a year) production than that at ANY position.Well, to be more fair, you'd have to look at the standard deviation of kickers rankings (or points per game) from week-to-week vs. other positions. With this analysis, you are only looking at the #1 positional producer in a given week. So you aren't showing the likes of Marion Barber who hasn't bee the #1 RB but has pretty much been top 3 each week.I actually find kickers for high-scoring teams to be some of the most consistent scorers. I had Gostowski last year, and he seemed to be good for 7-12 points each and every week. Sure, the 12 point and 15 point games are rare because they aren't booting a lot of FGs, but you aren't going to get many 2 or 3 point week.I picked Prater off the wire in Week 1 when it was clear that Denver was going to be a high scoring team, and he's been 11/9/10 through three weeks. I think that's fairly easy to predict & rank.On a side note, shame on FBGs for *just this week* IDing Prater as **POTENTIAL WAIVER WIRE GEM**. Tsk tsk. Should have been on that after one week. I wonder how many paying subscribers are now going to lose their league because of this lack of foresight?
Chicago Hooligan
Footballguy
You're still working under the assumption that everyone sticks with the same kicker all year. You probably won't get the most fantasy points over a season out of this strategy, unless you happened to draft the #1 guy or pick him up very fast.Eliminating kickers to "minimize luck" is one of the funnier ideas I've heard.
tomarken
Footballguy
He has a name, you know. It's not like Denver is a stud fantasy kicker factory. They had Elam for the last 14 years. And Elam is still top-10 so far now that he's in Atlanta. So I wouldn't say there's an identifiable trend dealing with "the Denver kicker".
Holy Schneikes
Footballguy
I'm confused. I know a lot of folks play musical kickers (not sure why, and I think that is part of the cause of the anger toward the position), but I generally have good kicker (usually Denver), play him all year and I'm done with it. I generally do get more points using this strategy than most teams trying to guess who's going to perform in a given week. Don't have to waste transactions or bid points, just roll with the good and the bad.
Chicago Hooligan
Footballguy
I don't think either strategy is bad. I just try and get someone who seems like they'll have a lot of FG opportunities. You'll almost certainly have to switch kickers when you get to his bye. But like, out of his last 6 games, Prater has 3 in Mile High and one in NY -- will he have more points than you might get by switching to Joe Nedney (or whoever) at Prater's bye? Maybe. Maybe not.
Holy Schneikes
Footballguy
Elam is a fine kicker. But IMO he WAS to some degree a product of the system. Denver traditionally has a good offense, and the thin air helps more than you think. A hefty proportion of his long field goals happened at Mile High. Until this year as far as I can tell, he hadn't even ATTEMPTED a 50 yarder in an away game since 2004. His leg was getting weaker, and the coaches generally only attempted the really long ones in the thin air.Just for fun, David Treadwell was in the top 5 for three years straight in field goals made in 89, 90, and 91 (just before Elam got there). In '93, he went to the Giants. In '94 he retired at the age of 29, because he wasn't a great kicker anymore. Go figure.
Stompin' Tom Connors
Footballguy
If someone told me in preseason that I would drop Vinatieri for some guy named Prater after Week 2, I would have...well, been mildly surprised at most.
