How to Pick the Best DFS Kicker (K): 2023 Guide

Summary

Kickers are not the most glamorous aspect of DFS, but that doesn’t mean you should avoid strategizing for them all together. If you’re in a kicker contest you’ll want to look at a kicker on a favorited team with a good offense that’s facing a defense that’s strong in the red zone. Of course an accurate kicker is also of the utmost importance, so make sure to grab a kicker with favorable percentages. Kickers are driving the ball further every year, so you can expect the occasional massive outing for a kicker throughout the 2023 NFL season.

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The top 25 scorers in NFL history are all kickers, but kickers remain an afterthought for most DFS players.

In fact, DraftKings and FanDuel limit kickers to select contests formats, like single-game slates. Their most popular game styles are kicker-free.

Nonetheless, if you like incorporating kickers in your strategy, here’s how to approach them…

Kicker (K) Scoring in DFS

NFL teams made about 1.6 field goals per game and 2.4 extra points in 2020 (source).

That’s about one field goal every 6.7 drives.

Here’s how kickers were rewarded for those points.

As you can probably surmise, kickers seldom score a lot of points and they don’t have big upsides.

Core Kicker Strategies

• There’s two very key things to remember:
  1. The higher a team’s point total ( [TeamPtsA DFS Hub field that equals the consensus Vegas prediction of how many points a team will score in its game. For more, see:
     • Over-Under
     More] ) the more points a kicker should score.
  2. Game script must be considered, as teams kick less on 4th down when they’re behind.
• A rule of thumb is that you want to choose a kicker on a favorite with a team total over 27.
• Two stats worth knowing:
  • Field goal percentage ([PFFtotal_percent]) — the percentage of a kicker’s kicks that go through the uprights
    • Overall, about 84% of field goals are made. (Source)
  • Extra point percentage [PFFpat_percent] — the percentage of extra points made
    • Overall, about 93% of extra points were good.
• Look for opposing teams that employ a bend-but-don’t-break style of defense. By holding offenses to fewer TDs in the red zone, it forces more kicks. That’s positive for any kicker on a reasonably competent offensive squad.

Miscellaneous

• The kicking world is seeing some interesting trends:
  • For one thing, kickers are booting longer field goals, and more accurately.
    • Fun fact: This past season Daniel Carlson alone made 11 field goals over 50 yards. In 2000 there were just 38 across the whole league.
  • Overall, the average field goal length is about 38 yards and getting longer.