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