We’ve made some changes in the custom scoring area to the way we handle kickers. We’ve added and fine-tuned a few options, making the rankings more fantasy-friendly for users giving performance bonuses for kickers.
Our traditional kicker rankings are based on straight NFL points – the more field goals and extra points a guy is involved in, the higher he’ll rank.
But most fantasy leagues, I think, also award points for lengths of field goals. Most commonly, leagues tend to get 3 points for field goals under 30 yards, 4 points for kicks in the 40s, and 5 points for field goals longer than 50 yards.
The Custom Scoring area is now better set up to serve this demographic.
If your league gives bonuses for long kicks, you can account for that in your custom rankings. Just click on “Your Stuff”, then find the “Your Scoring Profiles” link. Inside the scoring profile, there’s a question, “Does your league give extra credit for longer touchdowns?” Click “yes” on that, then you’ll be allowed to reconfigure your kicker rankings.
Once the scoring system is changed in your personal settings, the rankings will be changed based on a series of qualifiers we’ve attached to each kicker.
Basically, each kicker is tagged with either a strong leg, average leg or weak league, and those strong-legged guys will tend to score more of the long-range field goals.
Additionally, each kicker is tagged with playing on a team that’s either a winning team, a losing team or a middle-of-the-pack team. The losing teams tend to score a higher percentage of their points on field goals (rather than touchdowns).
The changes aren’t huge, but they do cause a few guys to move up a spot or two.
Here are the current numbers, with the projected NFL points followed by the standard fantasy score (with 3-5 points for field goals, depending on length).
| CURRENT KICKER RANKINGS | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Player | NFL | Fantasy | Rk |
| Mason Crosby | 139.2 | 151.5 | |
| Stephen Gostkowski | 136.0 | 148.0 | |
| Steven Hauschka | 134.4 | 147.8 | |
| Justin Tucker | 129.6 | 144.1 | (+1) |
| Adam Vinatieri | 131.2 | 142.8 | (-1) |
| Dan Bailey | 128.0 | 140.6 | (+1) |
| Connor Barth | 128.7 | 140.1 | (-1) |
| Dan Carpenter | 125.5 | 139.1 | (+1) |
| Cody Parkey | 127.0 | 138.2 | (-1) |
| Matt Bryant | 124.5 | 135.5 | |
| Josh Brown | 121.5 | 134.7 | (+1) |
| Nick Novak | 120.0 | 133.4 | (+2) |
| Matt Prater | 121.0 | 132.9 | |
| Blair Walsh | 121.6 | 131.3 | (-3) |
| Mike Nugent | 119.0 | 128.5 | |
| Randy Bullock | 117.0 | 128.5 | (+1) |
| Graham Gano | 116.8 | 128.3 | (+1) |
| Chandler Catanzaro | 118.4 | 127.9 | (-2) |
| Nick Folk | 113.6 | 127.8 | (+1) |
| Greg Zuerlein | 114.9 | 126.2 | (-1) |
| Cairo Santos | 108.0 | 119.7 | |
| Caleb Sturgis | 105.6 | 117.0 | (+1) |
| Phil Dawson | 107.2 | 115.8 | (-1) |
| Sebastian Janikowski | 100.0 | 112.5 | (+1) |
| Robbie Gould | 99.2 | 109.9 | (+1) |
| Patrick Murray | 100.8 | 109.5 | (-2) |
| Ryan Succop | 97.6 | 106.1 | |
| Kai Forbath | 96.0 | 104.3 | |
| Josh Scobee | 93.6 | 103.7 | |
—Ian Allan