K

[kingmike74]

My last pick is coming up and needless to say, it is a kicker.

Got any sleepers?

I know posting this will get no response but what the hey, give the PK some love.

[bmor8811]

I like to get a kicker with a weakish offense that has problems knocking in the ball... or with a good D/ST that sets them up a lot. I've had some relative luck with Stover, Bironas, and Longwell. But that's all I really put into it.. no real statistical reason

[kingmike74]

I used to think the same way and it never worked out.

I have done some studying and teams that win 10+ have kickers that score 105+, teams that lose 10, have kickers around the 85 range.

So I should pose a new question, does anyone have any sleeper "teams" that might suprise and win 10 games?

[LegendoftheFall]

i look for teams with good passing offenses but poor running offenses usually produce good kickers. they get down the field but stall in the red zone. Teams that play in a dome or warm weather.... Ariz, New England, Indy, New Orleans all fit the bill, but their kickers usually go early. for sleeper teams maybe cincy, Houston, denver?

[bmor8811]

I used to think the same way and it never worked out.

I have done some studying and teams that win 10+ have kickers that score 105+, teams that lose 10, have kickers around the 85 range.

So I should pose a new question, does anyone have any sleeper "teams" that might suprise and win 10 games?

Well, yea, it's not that a good team doesn't need a good kicker. But to put it into the big picture the most a K averages is at most going to average 6-7 points per game. MAYBE. So, don't waste good picks on them, even WR4 and RB4 score more than that. But if it's the last pick I fear picking kickers can be researched as much as you want but it's just as much random as anything.

It's just that a kicker's season is soo relative to the team they play on. Just because it's a good kicker doesn't mean they always score well. It's a lot of luck and being in the right place at the right time. So while the research does show that a team needs a good kicker to win, it'll also show that the adp of those kickers vary from season to season. Rarely do top kickers from one year repeat from year to year. Take a look... the top ten from the last 5 years:

2008 - Gostkowski, Carney, Bryant, Dawson, Akers, Bironas, K. Brown, Nedney, J.Brown, Elam
2007 - Bironas, Graham, Gould, Crosby, Hanson, Suisham, Nugent, Bryant, J. Brown, Elam
2006 - Gould, Wilkins, Hanson, Stover, Nedney, Elam, Kaeding, Rackers, Scobee, Vinatieri
2005 - Rackers, Feely, Stover, Lindell, Graham, Dawson, Wilkins, Nedney, Tynes, K. Brown
2004 - Vinatieri, Stover, Elam, Reed, Graham, Akers, Janikowski, Hanson, Lindwell, Longwell

So, hardly any semblance of consistency. It's just that with the relatively low point totals, it's really efficient to spend a ton of time researching or picking guys that can/can't effect your team at any time. So good luck, hope you get a good guy!! Just don't fret too much. One point a game isn't gonna kill ya in the long run

[dmacblue]

Two words..... 'Weekly matchups'

[LegendoftheFall]

i agree with dmacblue. play the matchups, especially at the beginning of the season and then you can settle in on a kicker when you see which teams are playing well. last season i didnt even draft a kicker but picked up the best available FA kicker each week (based on las Vegas' projected points of their offense), at the end of the year i totaled up my combined kicker score and it was the exact same point total as Gastkowski who was the top kicker in the league. And i didnt have to waste a draft pick or drop a position player to add a kicker on a bye week. I will probably do the same thing this year.

[TruNinerFan]

Joe Nedney

[kingmike74]

Well, with my ranikings I had Jason Elam around 3-5 ranked this year with 120 pts., give or take, and can you believe it, sitting there with the next to last pick, there was Elam.

Thx for all the input fellas, good luck this year.