I'm sitting at a surprisingly uncrowded Starbucks with very few work e-mails coming through and anticipating a quiet day as it seems many of my coworkers must be getting after Thanksgiving plans a bit early. We aren't traveling this year (yea!) and are having family come to us (double yea!) but it is yet to be seen how much of my day will be spent on football tomorrow. Hopefully I'll at least be able to check in on all the games for a little while. Safe travels to all and let's get right to Bob's weekly kicker article.
Hello Fantasy Football players, Thanksgiving is approaching
and we have a real interesting set of matchups this week. Thursday will have three games and they’re
all great matchups. We also have a lot
of matchups that will help decide playoff contention and a lot of games being
played indoors. So let us navigate the
hardest position to project, the kicker, and see what we can come up with.
Last week was a mediocre week for the streamers. Look see below…
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Week 12
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Top Perfomers
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Player
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Actual
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Parkey
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25
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|
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Santos
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8
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Hauschka
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19
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Gould
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3
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Cundiff
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18
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Carpenter
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11
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Vinatieri
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14
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Cundiff
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18
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Tucker
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14
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Murray
|
9
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Average
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9.8
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Week 12 Avg
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9.46
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Yearly Avg
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9.2
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% Owned best
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13.5
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% Owned temper
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13.5
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It was a great week for the highly owned kickers, averaging
13.5 points. So if you locked in and
started one of those, then you fared well. Those include kickers owned in over 70% of leagues: Gostkowski, Vinatieri,
Hauschka, Dawson, Parkey, Crosby, Bailey, Suisham, Tucker. Overall average for Week 12 was 9.46, and the
average for the streamers came out at 9.8. So, again, the streamers beat the average, with Cundiff coming in 3rd
overall, and Carpenter not far behind. Yearly average came back up with a good week 12 for kickers.
Here’s this week’s analysis and recommendations:
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Player
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Pts
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Avg
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% Owned
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Opp
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Comment
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Gostkowski
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148
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13.5
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99%
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@GB
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7th
best start, it's Gost, but weather may play a role outdoors
|
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Vinatieri
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140
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12.7
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99%
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WAS
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1st best start, good kicker, indoors
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Bailey
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120
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10.9
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90%
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PHI
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3rd best start, good kicker, indoors
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Hauschka
|
120
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10.9
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89%
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@SF
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4th best start, decent kicker, any pts will be dear
|
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Dawson
|
111
|
10.1
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87%
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SEA
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2nd best start, good kicker, any pts will be dear
|
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Parkey
|
135
|
12.3
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85%
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@DAL
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5th best start, good kicker, indoors
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Crosby
|
108
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9.8
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83%
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NE
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Temper expectations, playing in the elements
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Tucker
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121
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11
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81%
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SD
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6th best start, great kicker, fair weather field
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Suisham
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106
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9.6
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35%
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NO
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1st
best stream, generous NO, good kicker
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Bullock
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113
|
10.3
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11%
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TEN
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2nd
best stream, generous TEN, indoors
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Brown
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71
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6.5
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4%
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@JAC
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3rd
best stream, generous JAC, Brown hasn't missed a FG all year
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Catanzaro
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101
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9.2
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38%
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@ATL
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4th
best stream, generous ATL, good kicker, decent weather
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Carpenter
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116
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10.5
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60%
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CLE
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5th
best stream, good kicker, defensive game
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First, all 8 of Kickers owned in %70 of leagues or more are
starts this week. That’s the first time
that’s happened since this column started. So start ‘em if you have ‘em.
First best stream is Suisham. NO is just about baked, much like your turkey
day casserole. Bal scored at will and
Tucker put up big numbers on a terrible defense. Suisham is almost as good. Expect a big number.
Second best stream is the underrated Bullock out of
Hou. He’s only owned in 11% of leagues and
has averaged over 10 points a game. He
has a good matchup this week with TEN that can score now, but can’t defend.
Third best is Josh Brown. Did you know he hasn’t missed a field goal all year? Problem is, he hasn’t had enough attempts and
has a low average points per game because of that. This week against the hapless Jaguars, he
gets his attempts and makes good.
Fourth best is another overlooked kick in Catanzaro. He’s a good kicker, playing in a decent
weather situation against a very generous defense. He gets double digit points this week.
Finally, I like Dan Carpenter, even though the game will be
played in a tough weather situation. This is going to be a defensive Donnybrook, so expect a lot of FG
opportunities for both teams. I can’t
recommend Cundiff though, because he’s missed too many field goals this
year. So take the better kicker in this
matchup.
That’s the scoop for this week and if you don’t have one of
the highly owned kickers, pick up one of the five streamers, instead of
‘kicking it down the road’…
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