Kickers and Defenses: I get NO respect!

The late Rodney Dangerfield could relate to a fantasy kicker because he gets "no respect." Many fantasy websites will not rank kickers, discuss waiver wire kicker adds, or kicker trades. The fact of the matter, however, is Steven Gostkowski's 3 missed field goals probably cost a ton of hardworking American fantasy owners their matchups! Kickers and Defenses are unpredictable and not worth agonizing over. But after 3 weeks of play, flukes become trends and it's a great time to re-evaluate your kicker / defense situation, especially as we enter the bye weeks.


Kickers

If your kicker is on bye, and your bench is full of quality upside potential that you don't want to drop (C.J. Spiller, Jacoby Jones, Ben Roethlisberger), then you should probably cut your kicker and get the best available for this week. There's a good chance the new kicker could be better by season's end anyway. Plus, most people aren't rushing to spend their free agent budget or waiver priority on a kicker, so if you really want him, you can probably get him back next Wednesday.

That being said, if you're confident that you have a top 5 kicker or defense, and could make some room on your bench, pick up a bye week replacement and hold on to your original. You'll feel silly for carrying 2 kickers for a few days, but it's worth it to keep winning! This applies especially as we get later on in the season and you can feel more confident that your guy is in fact a top 5 guy. For now though, none of the week 4 bye kickers are good enough to hold onto, so cut 'em if you got 'em.

The top 5 kickers at this point are Mike Nugent, Neil Rackers, Jeff Reed, Matt Bryant, and Sebastian Janikowski, none of which were drafted in the top 10. Meanwhile, consensus top picks David Akers, Stephen Gostkowski, Ryan Longwell, Garrett Hartley, and Nate Kaeding are all outside the top 18. This goes to show once again that you shouldn't draft a kicker before the last 2 rounds. (If you recall, we advised you to wait until the end and grab Neil Rackers, who is 7 for 8 and the #2 kicker in Fantasyland. Congrats if you got him!)

So what do you do? Of those slouching top guys, you might want to hold on to the guys who aren't missing Field Goals, and who are on good offenses, but for some reason there just haven't been a lot of FG attempts yet. This includes David Akers and Nate Kaeding. Longwell is in trouble because the whole Minnesota offense is in trouble; cut him loose. Hartley, Buehler, Tynes, and Gostkowski are each having serious accuracy problems. In some cases, the team might replace their kicker. In other cases, you'll see the coach opt to go for it on 4th and short on the 30 yard line because they don't trust their field goal kicker. Drop these guys.

As for pickups, I'd try out most of these top guys: Rackers, Nugent, Reed, Bryant, Gano, and Folk in that order. They're each available in most leagues.

[Update: Saints just signed John Carney. Hartley-owners can definitely drop him now. I wouldn't rush to pickup Carney just yet, unless you have really bad Kicker options.]


Defenses

As for Defenses, let's play an old Sesame Street game called, "Which One Of These Is Not Like The Other One?" Of the top 3 fantasy defenses, which one doesn't historically strike fear into the heart of opposing offenses: Pittsburgh, Tennessee, or Seattle? Seattle is unsurprisingly available in the vast majority of leagues. They've been up-and-down, putting up 19, 0, and 15 points. I'd think week 4 will be another up week for them as they take on the mighty Rams.

Tennessee is still available in over half of leagues. They're #3 in fantasy points and look to have a decent schedule coming up.

Indianapolis is also still available in over half of leagues, and they rank #5 on the season. Up next, Indy has solid matchups against Jacksonville, Kansas City, and Washington.

Atlanta sits at the #10 spot. I'm not rushing to add them, but if you need help, especially in the next 2 weeks, Atlanta is worth a look. They face the 49ers and the Browns in the next 2 weeks.

The only defense on a bye this week worth holding onto is Minnesota. They had an unsurprisingly poor showing in their matchup against the Saints in week 1, but have been solid ever since.

Kansas City sits at #7 overall and ESPN's Matthew Berry was plugging them on every platform he could last week. Don't grab them yet though. They're on bye this week, then get Indy, then Houston. 

If you are still holding onto the Giants, Patriots, Ravens, or Niners, I think you can safely drop them.

So there you have it. Don't spend more than $1 or waste a good waiver priority on any kicker or defense. But once they clear waivers, you need to be on top of that. Especially now that byes are upon us, people will be actively making Kicker and Defense (and Tight End) moves. You should anticipate that and make your moves as early in the week as your league allows you to, in order to beat the rush.