Congratulations, folks! We’ve made it! After months of waiting, fantasy football draft season is upon us. After spending the past four months analyzing, assessing, and curating my ranks, I’ve settled on a handful of “my guys.” Of course, I don’t really have “guys” for kickers. But I do have kickers I’m trying to draft in my leagues that still have kickers.
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Top Kickers To Draft in Fantasy Football in 2023
When it comes to kickers, this is less about the player and more about the team situation and matchup. I don’t draft kickers to keep through the entire season (but if it ends up working out that way, great!).
Instead, I target kickers I know I can use in Week 1/early in the season. Here are three kickers listed in ADP order.
Younghoe Koo, Atlanta Falcons (ADP: K6)
It wasn’t all that long ago (2020) that Younghoe Koo was the No. 1 scoring kicker, averaging 10.7 fantasy points per game. Koo regressed considerably the following year, but not because of anything he did. The Falcons were just a much worse offense.
Last year, Atlanta bounced back a little bit offensively. As a result, so did Koo.
As you can see, kicker scoring is largely tied to the quality of the kicker’s overall offense. But you don’t want an offense that’s too efficient because then they’re always scoring touchdowns instead of kicking field goals.
Koo finds himself in the perfect spot. He plays for an offense that has a huge question mark at quarterback but has three elite skill-position players to prop it up. Atlanta has a great running scheme, which will help them move the ball, but perhaps hinder them from consistently finishing drives.
The Falcons have a soft schedule in a weak division, and over half of their games are in a dome. Everything is shaping up for Koo to be a top kicker once again.
Atlanta opens up at home against the Panthers and Packers. Those are two games they should be favored to win.
You will read this a lot throughout the season in my kicker streamers column: We want kickers on teams that are favored with good offenses and playing in good weather. Koo checks all the boxes early in the season.
Cameron Dicker, Los Angeles Chargers (ADP: K10)
Last season, Dustin Hopkins returned from a one-week absence in Week 6. He aggravated his hamstring injury but kicked through it, drilling four field goals, including the game-winner.
Unfortunately, Hopkins’ injury forced him to miss over a month. During that time, Cameron Dicker took over, and all he did was perform so well that the Chargers never turned back to the guy who gutted it out to win them that Week 6 game.
MORE: Jason Katz’s Must-Have Players — QB | RB | WR | TE | DEF
The Chargers are going to find themselves in a number of high-scoring games throughout the season. While they may not be favored in all of them, they are a potent enough offense to score a lot of points. They won’t all be touchdowns.
Los Angeles opens at home against Miami, at Tennessee, at Minnesota, and at home against Las Vegas. L.A. is not going to be heavy underdogs in any of those games, and they all come in domes or in good weather. Dicker is an excellent kicker to target in fantasy drafts.
Brandon McManus, Jacksonville Jaguars (ADP: K13)
I had a lot of success last year streaming Riley Patterson, who was the Jaguars kicker at the time. Let’s go back to the well with Brandon McManus, who was a quality kicker for the Denver Broncos for the past decade.
Jacksonville projects to have one of the better offenses in the NFL. They play in a weak division and in good weather.
The Jaguars open the season at Indianapolis against the Colts, but then they have three straight games at home. They will be favored in three out of four of them, making McManus a great option to start the season.