Those of you that use our kicker cheatsheets as a guide to set your fantasy lineups know that I’ve been suggesting, if you have the roster space, that you be proactive and add Matt Prater to your lineup. Belie that recommendation!
This cheatsheet ranks the fantasy value of kickers for week 5, 2014. It’s based on field goals being worth 3 points, and PATs as 1 point. (I.e., no bonus points awarded for long range field goals, or deductions for missed kicks.)
The following kickers do not play in week 5 because of bye:
Caleb Sturgis MIA
Sebastian Janikowski OAK
This cheatsheet ranks the fantasy value of kickers from now until the end of the season. It’s based on field goals being worth 3 points, and PATs as 1 point. (I.e., no bonus points awarded for long range field goals, or deductions for missed kicks.)
Number in parenthesis indicates bye week
Green = Bye week done
Red = Bye this week
This cheatsheet ranks the fantasy value of kickers for week 4, 2014. It’s based on field goals being worth 3 points, and PATs as 1 point. (I.e., no bonus points awarded for long range field goals, or deductions for missed kicks.)
RANK – PLAYER NAME – MATCHUP
The following kickers do not play in week 4 because of bye:
Chandler Catanzaro ARZ
Billy Cundiff CLE
Steven Hauschka SEA
Brandon McManus DEN (Matt Prater suspended)
Mike Nugent CIN
Greg Zuerlein STL
This cheatsheet ranks the fantasy value of kickers from now until the end of the season. It’s based on field goals being worth 3 points, and PATs as 1 point. (I.e., no bonus points awarded for long range field goals, or deductions for missed kicks.)
RANK – PLAYER NAME – TEAM/BYE
(Red = Bye this week)
When you turn on your TV on Sunday afternoon, every score you see – every goal line plunge, every field goal, every touchdown reception, every extra point – will all have been scored with a Wilson football. Wilson is the official ball of the NFL. This is a tour of Wilson’s Football Factory in Ada, Ohio, where all of the Official NFL footballs are made. This short video shows the step-by-step process that’s used to make each and every one of these footballs. Very interesting!
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Adrien Noterdaem is an artist from Belgium that has the unique ability to imitate the Simpsons animation look. Recently Noterdaem, working with Bleacher Report (http://bleacherreport.com/), created several exposés of NFL players in the distinctive Simpsons style. I present them to you here. Enjoy!
This cheatsheet ranks the fantasy value of kickers for week 3, 2014. It’s based on field goals being worth 3 points, and PATs as 1 point. (I.e., no bonus points awarded for long range field goals, or deductions for missed kicks.)
RANK – PLAYER NAME – MATCHUP
This cheatsheet ranks the fantasy value of kickers from now until the end of the season. It’s based on field goals being worth 3 points, and PATs as 1 point. (I.e., no bonus points awarded for long range field goals, or deductions for missed kicks.)
RANK – PLAYER NAME – TEAM/BYE
This cheatsheet ranks the fantasy value of kickers for week 2, 2014. It’s based on field goals being worth 3 points, and PATs as 1 point. (I.e., no bonus points awarded for long range field goals, or deductions for missed kicks.)
RANK – PLAYER NAME – MATCHUP
This cheatsheet ranks the fantasy value of kickers from now until the end of the season. It’s based on field goals being worth 3 points, and PATs as 1 point. (I.e., no bonus points awarded for long range field goals, or deductions for missed kicks.)
RANK – PLAYER NAME – TEAM/BYE
If you’ve been a reader of Football Weblog for a while, you already know that we provide the most accurate fantasy football kicker rankings found anywhere. We’ve shown through regression analysis that a kicker’s accuracy or his ability to kick long-range field goals have little bearing on his propensity to score points. The key to finding the highest scoring fantasy football kickers hinges on identifying kickers that hail from teams that score the most points and win the most games. (See “Using the Science of Statistics to Select a Fantasy Kicker”.)
Applying this concept results in Football Weblog’s 2014 Preseason Kicker Cheatsheet. (See below.) As you can see, several kickers are ranked very differently from the so-called fantasy football “experts”. For example, most other generic “cookie-cutter” cheatsheets rank Justin Tucker, Blair Walsh, and Sebastian Janikowski quite high, while Alex Henery, Mike Nugent, and Graham Gano are low on the totem pole. Time will tell the accuracy of these numbers, but I’ll put my money on the science of statistics rather than gut feelings or past history.
Maybe it’s just me, but when so much is on the line in football, whether it’s college ball or the pros, spotting a football by eyesight seems lame. Inches are huge in football, yet the job of the head linesman and line judge in determining the exact location of a football after a play ends is really just a best guess. Adverse conditions make their job even more difficult. How is it possible for two mortal referees to accurately spot a football when it’s blocked from view during, say, a goal-line plunge with the running back buried under a pile of players? How can the officials correctly place the ball when there’s thick fog or heavy snow messing with visibility? Can’t some kind of GPS system be implanted in the ball so the referees would always know a ball’s true location?
Chris Kluwe has been in the news a lot recently regarding his allegations that Minnesota Vikings special-teams coordinator Mike Priefer used homophobic language on many occasions. Even before this most-recent happening, Kluwe has been involved in a number of divisive incidents because of his unfiltered style of speaking out. Recently, however, I stumbled across an entertaining talk presented by Kluwe pertaining to augmented reality and the direction that, not only sports may take, but society as well. I may not agree with Kluwe’s statements that fans want to “be” their favorite player – my enjoyment with football revolves more around the strategic element – but he presents a future that very well may come to pass. Enjoy!
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