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Experts Poll Kickers

Zuerlein lifts Scott Sachs to win at kicker position

Scott Sachs of Perfect Season Fantasy Football is the winner of the Kickers portion of the Fantasy Index Experts Poll, and for that he can thank Greg Zuerlein. Zuerlein scored a league-high 158 kicking points, and Sachs ranked him a lot higher than everyone else.

Only one other expert, in fact, mentioned Zuerlein at all. Ken Valis ranked him 2nd. None of the other 18 analysts in this competition included Zuerlein in their preseason top 20.

Sachs, on the other hand, ranked him way up at 10th, allowing him to lap the field at this position, outscoring everyone by at least 2,000 points (with typical scores around 30,000).

Jody Smith (Gridiron Experts) finished in 2nd place at this position, followed by Bob Henry (FootballGuys).

Injuries (and roster moves) played more of a role at this position than in the past, with six of the top 15 preseason kickers missing significant action: Dan Bailey, Cairo Santos, Sebastian Janikowski, Dustin Hopkins, Caleb Sturgis and Josh Lambo. The way we score this competition, those who ranked such kickers highly got torched at this position.

L.A. Hale, for example, had Santos and Sturgis as two of his top 3 kickers. Those were outstanding recommendations (considering how many kicking points Harrison Butker and Jake Elliott scored for those teams) but Hale finished next-to-last at this position. He also was as high as anyone on Hopkins.

Paul Charchian was higher than everyone on three kickers, and they all missed substantial playing time: Nick Novak, Nick Folk and Andrew Franks. So Charchian finished dead last at this position. But don’t worry about him too much. He was the only expert to include Kareem Hunt in his top 20, and he’ll make up a ton of ground with that pick when we get around to grading the running backs.

Scoring for this competition is notoriously complex, with every pick by every expert graded. The higher a player is ranked, the more he counts towards the score. Stephen Gostkowski, for example, scored 156 points. Those who ranked him No. 1 received 3,900 points for that choice (156 x 25). Those who ranked him 2nd received 3,744 (156 x 124).

Such a scoring system puts a premium an identifying players who are at least going to play most of the season. In typical fantasy leagues, however, teams make waiver moves during the season. Teams owned by guys like Hale and Charchian who selected dud kickers presumably would replace them along the way, and there were plenty of great kickers coming out of the woodwork this year – Butker and Elliott, for example, weren’t even on rosters at the start of the season.

To try to account for that dynamic, we also score the competition in an alternative way (originally suggested by Chris Liss of RotoWire). In Waiver Wire scoring, there’s a safety net at each position. You can’t do worse than the best guy after all of the starters are gone. Figuring on a 12-team league, we’re looking primarily at the 12 best kickers. Assume those guys were all chosen or obtained, and fantasy teams would still have a shot at getting their hands on the 13th-best kicker, who scored a reasonable 119 points – not zero like Andrew Franks and Roberto Aguayo. Working under the assumption that everyone could have used waiver moves and trades to finish with 119 points at the position, the focus then becomes who did the best job of identifying those who scored more than 119 points.

Using such a scoring system (and tossing out the 36,890 points obtained by selecting 20 dead guys) Sachs still comes out No. 1, outscoring everyone by almost 400 points. The 2nd- and 3rd-place finishers move down to 15th and 8th, and Tony Holm (Fantasy Sharks) moves up to 2nd from 4th.

In Waiver Wire Scoring, Ken Valis is the biggest climber, moving up from 17th to 4th. Two others move up significantly: Charchian (20th to 11th) and Sam Hendricks (14th to 7th).

EXPERTS POLL KICKERS (standard scoring)
AnalystCompanyPoints
Scott SachsPerfect Season FF32,787
Jody SmithGridiron Experts30,977
Bob HenryFootballGuys30,754
Tony HolmFantasy Sharks30,712
Ryan McDowellDynasty League Football30,707
Justin EleffFantasy Index Podcast30,707
Alan SatterleeCharlotte Observer30,632
Chris LissRotoWire30,345
Ryan MurphyEast Berlin, Pa.30,312
Scott PianowskiYahoo Sports30,255
Jeff RatcliffePro Football Focus30,206
Michael NazarekFantasy Football Mastermind29,916
Mike ClayESPN29,910
Sam HendricksExtra Point Press29,512
David DoreyThe Huddle29,400
Cory BoniniUSA Today Fantasy Sports29,138
Ken ValisGaithersburg, Md.29,095
Lenny PappanoDraft Sharks28,538
L.A. HaleFantasy Gives28,104
Paul CharchianLeagueSafe27,300
EXPERTS POLL KICKERS (Waiver Wire Scoring)
AnalystPointsStd Rk
Scott Sachs3,3471
Tony Holm2,9764
Justin Eleff2,9536
Ken Valis2,82317
Ryan McDowell2,7715
Mike Clay2,76313
Sam Hendricks2,75014
Bob Henry2,7283
Michael Nazarek2,71012
Alan Satterlee2,6767
Paul Charchian2,66320
Ryan Murphy2,6619
David Dorey2,63315
Chris Liss2,6268
Jody Smith2,6022
Jeff Ratcliffe2,57211
Scott Pianowski2,56510
L.A. Hale2,52619
Cory Bonini2,48316
Lenny Pappano2,48118

We will crown an overall champion, totaling up the points of all six positions. With one third of the positions scored (albeit the two least important positions) Sachs and Smith are the leaders.

The top 11 in this competition win spots in the Mock Draft league that appears in the magazine (with the No. 1 finishing getting his choice of which draft position he would like).

OVERALL LEADERBOARD (thru 2 positions)
AnalystPKDefPoints
Scott Sachs11464,294
Jody Smith2463,803
Justin Eleff6563,474
Ryan McDowell5663,210
Jeff Ratcliffe11363,103
Mike Clay13162,988
Bob Henry31062,590
Tony Holm41162,522
Chris Liss81262,126
Alan Satterlee71662,051
Ken Valis17262,022
Ryan Murphy91361,870
Sam Hendricks14861,551
Michael Nazarek121561,374
Scott Pianowski102061,279
Lenny Pappano18761,012
David Dorey151960,473
Cory Bonini161860,376
L.A. Hale191759,475
Paul Charchian20959,227

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