At this point in the year, teams have played a lot of games. So it gets more meaningful to weigh what offenses have done against what defenses are allowing. For some teams, anyway – others are a lot weaker or stronger than back in September. And for Week 17, we’re starting to dip into the reality that some teams will take these final games more seriously than others.
Nevertheless, we can take the offenses, pair them up with the defenses, and see how the teams come out, 1 thru 32, for the Week 17 matchps.
For the kicker position, Graham Gano, Cairo Santos and Chris Boswell come out in the top 3, with Stephen Gostkowski and Chandler Catanzaro not far back. Only notable observation here is that Santos has had similar matchups for the last four weeks and has come up small in three of those games, scoring only 4-5 points against the Raiders, Chargers and Browns.
Andrew Franks, Sebastian Janikowski, Kai Forbath and Ryan Succop (based purely on what teams have done) look like the worst kickers for Week 17.
| KICKERS: Offense/defense averages | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rk | Team | Points | Opponent | Points | Average |
| 1. | Carolina | 9.20 | Tampa Bay | 8.47 | 8.83 |
| 2. | Kansas City | 8.40 | Oakland | 9.07 | 8.73 |
| 3. | Pittsburgh | 8.60 | Cleveland | 8.40 | 8.50 |
| 4. | New England | 9.80 | Miami | 6.73 | 8.27 |
| 5. | Arizona | 9.13 | Seattle | 6.87 | 8.00 |
| 6. | NY Giants | 8.13 | Philadelphia | 7.73 | 7.93 |
| 7. | Philadelphia | 6.67 | NY Giants | 9.00 | 7.83 |
| 8. | Cincinnati | 7.57 | Baltimore | 8.07 | 7.82 |
| 9. | Denver | 7.71 | San Diego | 7.80 | 7.76 |
| 10. | Chicago | 7.93 | Detroit | 7.20 | 7.57 |
| 11. | Washington | 7.20 | Dallas | 7.73 | 7.47 |
| 12. | Minnesota | 8.47 | Green Bay | 6.33 | 7.40 |
| 13. | Dallas | 7.47 | Washington | 7.07 | 7.27 |
| 14. | Atlanta | 6.93 | New Orleans | 7.53 | 7.23 |
| 15. | Houston | 5.93 | Jacksonville | 8.40 | 7.17 |
| 16. | NY Jets | 7.87 | Buffalo | 6.27 | 7.07 |
| 17. | Seattle | 7.67 | Arizona | 6.20 | 6.93 |
| 18. | Green Bay | 6.73 | Minnesota | 7.00 | 6.87 |
| 19. | Detroit | 6.40 | Chicago | 7.27 | 6.83 |
| 20. | Baltimore | 7.87 | Cincinnati | 5.80 | 6.83 |
| 21. | San Francisco | 5.27 | St. Louis | 8.07 | 6.67 |
| 22. | Indianapolis | 6.33 | Tennessee | 7.00 | 6.67 |
| 23. | Tampa Bay | 7.60 | Carolina | 5.60 | 6.60 |
| 24. | Buffalo | 6.20 | NY Jets | 6.53 | 6.37 |
| 25. | Jacksonville | 6.93 | Houston | 5.67 | 6.30 |
| 26. | Cleveland | 6.27 | Pittsburgh | 6.33 | 6.30 |
| 27. | St. Louis | 5.33 | San Francisco | 7.27 | 6.30 |
| 28. | San Diego | 6.53 | Denver | 5.93 | 6.23 |
| 29. | Tennessee | 4.33 | Indianapolis | 7.87 | 6.10 |
| 30. | New Orleans | 6.00 | Atlanta | 6.07 | 6.03 |
| 31. | Oakland | 6.40 | Kansas City | 4.93 | 5.67 |
| 32. | Miami | 4.27 | New England | 5.93 | 5.10 |
—Ian Allan

