How to Stream a Fantasy Football Kicker (Part 3 of 3)

You are currently reading Part 3 of 3 of How to Stream a Fantasy Football Kicker. Reading the first two parts of this article goes a long way in explaining that you don’t want to just write off the kicker position in fantasy football. As you probably know, adding just a point or two to each of your fantasy football games will likely reward you with an extra win or two during your season, so it’s important. The first two parts also cover the basics you’ll need to make sense of this final installment in the series.

As already mentioned in the first two parts, How to Stream a Fantasy Football Kicker finds its basis in our original 2013 post, “Using the Science of Statistics to Select a Fantasy Kicker.” Click the blue buttons below to be conveniently taken to those previous posts:

Using Statistics to Select a Fantasy Kicker
How to Stream a Fantasy Kicker (Part 1 of 3)
How to Stream a Fantasy Kicker (Part 2 of 3)

The crux of these posts revolves around the creation of an Excel spreadsheet that uses Vegas odds to project team scoring, making selecting a kicker data-driven for fantasy football success. This latest and last post on the topic will explain how to use AI to speed up the process of making this spreadsheet and populating it with data.

Preliminary Work

Before incorporating AI, you need to do a little preliminary work.

Create the Excel spreadsheet. Follow “Step 1: Create the Excel Spreadsheet” as outlined in Part 2. Once Step 1 is done, your spreadsheet is good to go. Don’t bother doing Step 2 from Part 2. That’s not needed in this new process.

Using AI (ChatGPT)

Next, let’s go to the AI. I’ll be using ChatGPT in this example. Here’s the link: ChatGPT. If you’re not already registered, sign up first. The sign-up is free.

Once you’re signed in, follow these steps:

1. Locate the text box. When you first open ChatGPT, it appears in the middle of the screen. Once you send your first message, it moves to the bottom of the chat window for ongoing conversation.
2. Type the following prompt — but do not click Send (the up arrow icon) or press Enter yet.
   Important: Use Shift + Enter to add each new line. Pressing Enter alone will submit the prompt prematurely.

Prompt:
Please compile a tab-delimited list that lists the NFL team in column 1, the spread in column 2, and the over/under in column 3. I will paste the source for this information below. Please parse it as necessary to create this list. The list that you create should follow this format:
LV +8.5 42.0
DEN -8.5 42.0
ATL +6.5 48.0
IND -6.5 48.0
(etc.)

3. Paste in the Vegas Odds beneath what you’ve already typed in the prompt. Obtain this data by following “Step 3: Get the Vegas Odds” as explained in Part 2. The difference is, Part 2 had the information pasted into Notepad. That can be skipped. Just paste the Vegas odds information directly below what you’ve already entered in the prompt.
4. Click the Send button or press Enter on your keyboard to submit the prompt.

Assuming your ChatGPT responds the same way as mine, the response will be a neat list of all the NFL teams playing a game in that particular week, including the spread and over/under, formatted just as we need.

In the top-right corner of the list, there should be a button that says “Copy code”. Hit this button. The entire list will be copied to the clipboard, ready for you to paste into the spreadsheet. Simply select cell B2 in the spreadsheet and hit CTRL + P to paste the data.

That’s it! AI has painlessly done most of the hard work. Now you’ll simply need to make some minor tweaks. Refer to Steps 8 and 9 of Part 2 for these tweaks.

Reusing Your Chat

One more thing. When you start a chat in ChatGPT, the chat is automatically saved. You can access it again from the chat sidebar (located on the left side of the screen). Don’t delete this chat. It can be used in subsequent weeks.

In your prompt/text box, just write:

Prompt:
Here’s another one…

Paste the new odds below. When you hit Send or press Enter on your keyboard, ChatGPT will quickly create another list, perfectly formatted for use. How slick is that?

Wrapping Up

Well, that’s the gist of everything. Thank you for your patience with all of this. I’ve been wanting to write this post for the past several years. It seemed simple on the surface, but there are so many little details to cover that it’s easily the longest post I’ve ever made.

Again, it may look complicated, but it’s really simplicity itself. It’s nothing more than leveraging Las Vegas expertise to determine which NFL team is expected to score the most points, and then selecting the kicker from that team. Statistics bear out that the best fantasy kickers hail from the teams that score the most points, while traits — used by so-called fantasy football experts to determine the best kickers — such as a kicker’s leg strength or kicking accuracy, do not correlate to fantasy success.

I’m usually a self-deprecating person, but I’ve been using this method of streaming kickers for years. I genuinely believe it helps my fantasy teams. And, not to brag — just to put your mind at ease — I was a three-time consecutive fantasy champion in my work league before retiring, and I’m currently rocking a 10-1 record. You can trust me. (Insert maniacal laugh here.)

I hope you enjoyed this series!

As always, run to daylight!
~Randy