Ian Allan offers a rough outline of how NFL teams tend to finish with more kicking points when they win more games. The best scoring kickers tend to come from the best teams, while the low scorers tend to come from the lesser teams.
Some fantasy leaguers like to complain that there’s too much luck involved in picking kickers. That it’s just a crapshoot.
I disagree.
On the contrary, I think there might be less luck involved with kickers than any other position. In general, the best ones tend to come from the best teams. You win games by scoring points, and when you score lots of points, the logical extension is you also score lots of kicking points.
The Patriots, for example, have scored at least 125 kicking points a league-record six years in a row.
So when drawing up your list of 2013, you start by scratching out the likes of the Jaguars, Cardinals, Jets and Raiders. Ideally, you want one of the kickers from the high-scoring Super Bowl contenders.
Here are your highest- and lowest-scoring teams (kicking points) from the last three years. Note that none of the highest-scoring teams finished with losing records. And none of the lowest-scoring teams finished with winning records.
That isn’t luck.
KICKING: 135-PLUS POINTS | |||
---|---|---|---|
Year | Team | (record) | Points |
2011 | 49ers | (13-3) | 166 |
2012 | Patriots | (12-4) | 153 |
2011 | Saints | (13-3) | 147 |
2012 | Giants | (9-7) | 145 |
2012 | Falcons | (13-3) | 143 |
2011 | Patriots | (13-3) | 143 |
2010 | Eagles | (10-6) | 143 |
2010 | Raiders | (8-8) | 142 |
2012 | Vikings | (10-6) | 141 |
2011 | Packers | (15-1) | 140 |
2012 | Texans | (12-4) | 138 |
2011 | Cowboys | (8-8) | 135 |
2011 | Texans | (10-6) | 135 |
KICKING: UNDER 100 POINTS | |||
---|---|---|---|
Year | Team | (record) | Points |
2010 | 49ers | (6-10) | 99 |
2012 | Dolphins | (7-9) | 98 |
2010 | Browns | (5-11) | 97 |
2012 | Rams | (7-8-1) | 95 |
2012 | Jaguars | (2-14) | 93 |
2012 | Jets | (8-8) | 93 |
2011 | Colts | (2-14) | 93 |
2011 | Jaguars | (5-11) | 93 |
2011 | Browns | (4-12) | 92 |
2011 | Chiefs | (7-9) | 92 |
2010 | Panthers | (2-14) | 92 |
2012 | Panthers | (7-9) | 91 |
2011 | Cardinals | (8-8) | 90 |
2011 | Broncos | (8-8) | 87 |
2011 | Rams | (2-14) | 81 |
2010 | Vikings | (6-10) | 81 |
2010 | Bills | (4-12) | 79 |
--Ian Allan