Fantasy Football 2010 Preview – Placekickers

NFL kickers are the Rodney Dangerfield’s of the fantasy football world. They get no respect! You can’t live with them and you can’t live without them; pass the beer nuts.

Normally taken as the last pick in the draft by most fantasy owners; the PK position has never evolved into a “must have” entity. I was going to just say select your PK last and move on but I am going to buck the trend and give the PK position some props.

Fantasy Football Placekicker – Go Ahead, Get Your Kicks!

The fantasy football world has been very cruel in neglecting the PK position since the beginning of time. The reason for this is lost on us because of the simple fact that they clinch a win for their NFL teams time and time again.

We understand that kickers deciding a Fantasy Football Championship is not what most people want, but it has happened before and it will happen again.

Take Week 16 last year for example. The Vikings and Bears clashed on Monday Night Football in what was the final game during the Championship Weekend in most fantasy football leagues. This game featured two proven kickers in Ryan Longwell and Robbie Gould.

It’s not far fetched to imagine that somewhere, in some fantasy league, the two owners battling for their League Championship had Gould and Longwell. Also imagine that they headed into MNF with the Longwell owner holding a 6.3 fantasy point lead over the Gould owner and they both had just the kickers left on their active roster.

In that game Gould outscore Longwell 14.3 to 7.1 and the Gould owner won the Championship by 0.9 fantasy points! If that isn’t relative then I’m a monkeys uncle.

2010 NFL Placekickers – Their Place In Fantasy Football

Did you know that the top PK tied the top D/ST in fantasy point scoring at 164 during the 2009 season? Of course you didn’t, no one cares about the PK – or the D/ST for that matter.

Who would have been more valuable to you; the Chargers PK Nate Keading or RB LaDainian Tomlinson? Of course it was LT but only by 16 total fantasy points (LT 180 FP – Keading 164 FP) during the 2009 fantasy season.

How about Keading over Michael Turner or LeSean McCoy or Jermichael Finley? It’s all Keading!

The Jets Jay Feely and the Titans Rob Bironas came in fourth and fifth with 146.7 and 146.4 fantasy points respectively in 2009. That is a higher total than players like Antonio Bryant, Dwayne Bowe, Bernard Berrian, and Braylon Edwards. Put that in your pipe and smoke it.

We aren’t saying we would take any of those kickers over any of those skill position players but you can see that the PK position does have relevance and deserves a touch of respect on Draft Day.

A little respect;  that’s all the kickers are asking for.