2013 Fantasy Football: Final Kicker Rankings
With the important part of the 2013 NFL preseason in the books, we can finally rank the fantasy kickers for 2013.
The biggest movers, plus anyone who jumped up or fell down into a different tier, are noted in bold and followed with a short explanation. If you’d like a refresher to top off your glass with my earlier fantasy football rankings and Kool Aid you can find them here.
Minor changes and small tweaks to the rankings are yours to discover. With that, on to my final fantasy kicker rankings for 2013:
The Elites
1 Stephen Gostkowski, NE
2 Matt Bryant, ATL
3 Matt Prater, DEN
4 Phil Dawson, SF
Top Talents
5 Randy Bullock, HOU
6 Justin Tucker, BAL
7 Garrett Hartley, NO
Coach Sean Peyton being back on the sidelines makes the Saints move the ball more effectively. For those of you who aren’t good at pattern recognition, that’s some pretty solid cause and effect going on in New Orleans. Expect the coach to be a little rusty every now and then, giving Garrett Hartley a few extra FGs this season to go along with all those XPs.
8 Josh Brown, NYG
9 Blair Walsh, MIN
Quality Starters
10 Sebastian Janikowski, OAK
The Raiders are so terrible I’m not sure they’ll ever get close enough to midfield to get inside the astronomical range of Sebastian Janikowski. In leagues that award extra points for long FGs he becomes a reasonable gamble most weeks.
11 Robbie Gould, CHI
12 Dan Bailey, DAL
13 Steven Hauschka, SEA
14 Jay Feely, ARI
The preseason suggests the Cardinals should struggle just enough in the red zone to make Jay Feely a kicker worth owning every other week or so. Generally on the weeks you don’t play him though. He is a kicker, after all.
15 David Akers, DET
Middle Depth and Spot Starts
16 Greg Zuerlein, STL
17 Adam Vinatieri, IND
18 Mike Nugent, CIN
19 Kai Forbath, WAS
20 Shayne Graham, CLE
21 Mason Crosby, GB
It looks like whatever got into his head in 2012 isn’t out yet. Mason Crosby is at risk of losing his job, but whoever is the kicker for the Packers will be mostly counted on for extra points anyway, making them a shaky fantasy prospect.
22 Shaun Suisham, PIT
23 Ryan Succop, KC
24 Graham Gano, CAR
25 Alex Henery, PHI
26 Dustin Hopkins, BUF
27 Rob Bironas, TEN
28 Caleb Sturgis, MIA
29 Nick Novak, SD
30 Josh Scobee, JAC
31 Nick Folk, NYJ
Like the rest of the Jets even the kicker position might be complicated. Billy Cundiff has seen extended work in the preseason along with Nick Foles so there may be a competition brewing.
Training Camp Battles
32 L. Tynes/R. Lindell/D. Dimke, TB