What a week for fantasy football kickers.
One of the most polarizing experiences of Week 1 was having either Brandon Aubrey or Jake Moody in your game (add Chris Boswell and Blake Grupe to the list, but they weren't involved in many fantasy matchups). If you had them, you loved it. If you played against them, you probably considered asking your commissioner to ban kickers.
In standard scoring, only six players had more fantasy points than Moody in Week 1.
If you're not lucky enough to have Jake Moody on your roster, you may be looking for a starting option in Week 2. The kicker position is variable enough that streaming, or playing a new kicker every week based on matchups, is often better than trying to take a "set it and forget it" approach. You may not find it fun to dig through kicker stats every week, but I sure do. So I've done the hard work for you.
Here are the top fantasy football streaming kicker options you can target on the waiver wire (or better yet, after waivers clear and you can grab them for free) heading into Week 2. (All availability percentages are based on ESPN public leagues).
1. Jake Bates, Detroit Lions (56.5% Available)
Jake Bates is rostered in a much higher percentage of leagues than my next two picks, which makes sense. Why would you not want a kicker attached to an offense that was projected as one of the NFL's best?
The Detroit Lions didn't quite live up to that hype in Week 1, but even without factoring in the overtime boost, 20 points in regulation is nothing to scoff at. Jake Bates converted on all four of his opportunities (2 field goals and 2 extra points), and his 8 fantasy points firmly fell into the "that's fine enough" camp for a starting fantasy kicker.
The Lions are 7-point favorites over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in a game with a 51.5-point over/under in Week 2 (per FanDuel Sportsbook). That gives them an implied total of 29 points, which is the week's highest as of writing. So now Bates isn't just a kicker with a great offense, but he's a kicker with an offense projected for the week's highest score.
His upside may be slightly limited if he's mostly kicking extra points instead of field goals. If the Lions turn this into a blowout (they're the biggest favorites of the week too) then we may see Dan Campbell get a little less aggressive with fourth-down playcalling, giving Bates a bump in upside as well.
2. Matt Prater, Arizona Cardinals (97.6% Available)
The second highest over/under of Week 2 belongs to the matchup between the Arizona Cardinals and Los Angeles Rams, which projects to be a shootout with a high total and a tight point spread.
Matt Prater matched Bates' 8 fantasy points in Week 1, with the 40-year-old also knocking through 2 field goals and 2 extra points.
The Bills' run-heavy approach caused that game to be a bit of a grind, with neither team ranking in the top half of the NFL in plays run. The Rams play a much more up-tempo style, however, and this game should feature a ton of both offenses. Which of course also means the potential to feature both kickers heavily.
Don't be concerned about Prater's ability to hit those high-scoring 50-plus yard kicks either. The Cards gave him 12 attempts from 50-plus last season, and his 9 such makes were the second most in the NFL.
3. Joshua Karty, Los Angeles Rams (97.2% Available)
How about the other side of that Rams-Cardinals shootout?
The Rams attempted more field goals than any team in the NFL last season (43), so I wouldn't be too concerned about McVay's fourth-down playcalling (2 attempts in Week 1) limiting Karty's fantasy value.
One thing that's especially intriguing here is the Cardinals gave up the league's second-best average starting field position to the Bills in Week 1. This led to an easy path to 10 fantasy points for Bills kicker Tyler Bass.
If the Rams are consistently working with short fields here then we could see a nice bump in volume for Karty, and a 10-plus point performance is certainly within his range of outcomes.
With both kickers in this game available in nearly every league, you can feel really good about letting waivers clear and grabbing one once the free agent free-for-all begins later in the week.
This article was originally published on www.si.com as 3 Fantasy Football Streaming Kicker Options for Week 2.
