Welcome to the 2023 NFL fantasy football season. I'm taking our traditional fantasy rankings one step further and arranging them into tiers to help prepare you to dominate your drafts. Tiers give you a better idea of player values and will allow you to construct a more well-rounded roster.
This format also gives me cover for when, say, you get heated about Justin Fields being ranked ahead of Jalen Hurts. I can be all, "Hey, they are in the same tier." Seriously, the value is similar. I'll die on this hill. But enough about that. Let's continue with kickers!
I know kickers and defenses are the two most maligned positions in fantasy football. A lot of you will stream both, or worse, try to regulate them out of fantasy altogether. But here are some tiers for those of you who see the value in these positions and want to take advantage of it this year.
Tier 1
You want kickers on good offenses, or at the very least guys who never miss. Justin Tucker qualifies for both. ... Younghoe Koo has converted more than 90 percent of his field goals since joining the Falcons in 2019, and Atlanta’s offense could be more explosive this year. ... The Chiefs are going to score a lot of points. Harrison Butker is pretty consistent, although he is coming off a down year and missed four games last season with an ankle injury. ... Evan McPherson, Tyler Bass and Jake Elliott are great kickers in great offenses. It’s fairly self-explanatory.
Tier 2
Daniel Carlson is interesting. He was so great last season. Josh Jacobs’ absence from training camp and the fact that Jimmy Garoppolo is coming back from a foot injury has me scared just a bit about Las Vegas, but that could mean more field goal attempts (instead of extra point attempts) for Carlson.
Tier 3
Jake Moody is expected to be the new kicker for the San Francisco 49ers and will be a pretty good fantasy value. ... The Chargers’ kicking situation is unsettled, with Cameron Dicker and Dustin Hopkins competing for the job. The winner of that battle should do well for you.