FanHouse NateKaeding

It's been over a month since we last posted positional fantasy football rankings, so it's time to run our second version. Plus, we added some staff. This is now an average ranking from eight Fantasy FanHouse writers. To view the early version of our kicker rankings, click here.

I'll beat the dead horse here, because I feel like it is my duty. Please don't draft a kicker until the last round and never pay more than a dollar for one in an auction. It's just not worth it because of the turnover from year to year. Check this out:

Top three kickers in '08: Gostkowski, Akers, Carney
In '07: Crosby, Bironas, Folk
In '06: Gould, Kaeding, Scobee
In '05: Rackers, Feely, Graham

I could use a lot more data to continually hammer the point home, but it would be a waste of time. So, uh, yeah. Don't waste a pick until you have to.

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Remember when Eli Manning had that dopier-than-usual look on his face after the San Diego Chargers, against his wishes, took him with the first overall pick of the 2004 Draft? Good times.

It's playoff time! FanHouse fantasy positional rankings are compiled in order to provide answers to lineup questions. These are assuming most leagues use Fleaflicker's standard scoring structure. If you need clarification, you need more players ranked, or have funky league rules, feel free to shoot us an email question.

The Detroit Lions are so sad at this point it's almost not even funny. Still, in fantasy football you can't let emotions get in the way -- plus, I did say it was "almost" not funny. Either way, the Lions allow almost 10 fantasy points per game to opposing kickers.

Enter Adam Vinatieri, whose Colts get the pleasure of facing the Lions at home this weekend. The only fear is that the Lions give up only touchdowns and no field goals, but the defense showed enough fire against the Vikings for me to believe they can hold the Colts to a field goal twice. That's all Vinatieri needs to reach double-digits.

More notes after the rankings.

1. Adam Vinatieri, vs. DET
2. Rob Bironas, at HOU
3. John Carney, at DAL
4. Stephen Gostkowski, at OAK
5. Nate Kaeding, at KC

The playoffs are either upon us or one week away in the majority of fantasy football leagues. With this in mind, Fantasy FanHouse is examining what you can expect from the fantasy relevant players on each team.

Denver Broncos

The opposing defenses: vs. KC (25th against pass, 31st against run), @ CAR (12th against pass, 18th against run), BUF (14th against pass, 17th against run)
The skinny: It's usually hit or miss with Jay Cutler and this offense. Just when you think they're a lock to have one of those monster afternoon's they crap out on you. However, with the division title on their taste buds and a mild schedule on the horizon...it should be all systems a go. That's right load up your Bronco's and put your faith in them. No longer a dark horse, the new flavor of the month Peyton Hillis just might be the key factor/ingredient this offense has sorely needed. Stay tuned.
The must-starts: Jay Cutler, Brandon Marshall, Eddie Royal, Peyton Hillis
The likely start: Tony Sheffler, Matt Prater
The spot-start: None
The no-starts: Selvin Young, Tatum Bell, Brandon Stokley, Darrell Jackson
The D/ST: They haven't stopped anyone all season long and so there's no reason to believe they'll start now.

FanHouse fantasy positional rankings are compiled weekly by the staff in order to provide answers to possible lineup questions. These are assuming most leagues use Fleaflicker's standard scoring structure. If you need clarification, you need more players ranked, or have funky league rules, feel free to shoot us an email question.

Nick Folk was pretty much the consensus number one kicker this preseason, no matter where you looked. I have had the pleasure of avoiding the disappointment of owning him, because he was pretty much always taken before the last round and I thankfully have a rule against that.

This week, though, he's back. The Cowboys are coming off a bye week in which they got nearly all their weapons healthy, most importantly Tony Romo. I expect the scoreboard operator to be busy in Washington, and we can't expect the Cowboys to totally be firing on all cylinders, which means a few stalled drives mixed in with the multiple TDs. Plus, Folk's just the best kicker in the league when given the chance to be.

More analysis after the rankings.

1. Nick Folk, at WAS
2. Jason Elam, at ATL
3. Matt Prater, vs. DEN
4. Rob Bironas, at JAX
5. Matt Bryant, vs. MIN

FanHouse fantasy positional rankings are compiled weekly by the staff in order to provide answers to possible lineup questions. These are assuming most leagues use Fleaflicker's standard scoring structure. If you need clarification, you need more players ranked, or have funky league rules, feel free to shoot us an email question.

Coming off a stellar near 20 point effort and a bye week, there's no way I'm ranking anyone above Jason Elam and his bionic/ageless leg.

- The Redskins offense has sputtered enough against bad defenses recently to believe there will be several field goal opportunities for Shaun Suisham inside the comfort of a dome this weekend.

- Everyone's second favorite kicker entering the season, Shayne Graham, is returning from injury. The Bengals face a sieve of a defense in Houston. He's ranked low because of it being his first week back from injury and his having to rely upon Ryan Fitzpatrick and Cedric Benson to lead the team across mid-field ... but he's still a sleeper for a good week.

1. Jason Elam, @ PHI
2. Rob Bironas, vs. IND
3. Shaun Suisham, @ DET
4. John Kasay, vs. ARI
5. Nate Kaeding, vs. NO (London)

FanHouse fantasy positional rankings are compiled weekly by the staff in order to provide answers to possible lineup questions. These are assuming most leagues use Fleaflicker's standard scoring structure. If you need clarification, or have funky league rules, feel free to shoot us an email question.

More Rankings: OVER/UNDER | Quarterbacks | Running Backs | Wide Recievers | Tight Ends | DSTs

I keep seeing Nick Folk atop every kicking ranking ... and I wanna know why? When your team only scores TDs, you're only gonna get one point per attempt. Yes, he's likely to get some field goals this week -- hence his high ranking -- but 23 kickers outscored him last week. How is that the consensus number one? We play outside the box at FanHouse ...

- Which brings me to Shayne Graham. I keep seeing him ranked second at various different sites. Are the Bengals really scoring a lot on the Titans this weekend? Good luck with that.

- Give me Nate Kaeding. The Chargers are gonna score points, and they'll get stopped in field goal range a few times to boot.

1. Nate Kaeding, Chargers, @ DEN
2. Stephen Gostkowski, Pats, @ NYJ
3. Robbie Gould, Bears, @ CAR
4. Nick Folk, Cowboys, vs. PHI
5. Mason Crosby, Packers, @ DET

FanHouse positional rankings are compiled weekly by the staff in order to provide answers to possible lineup questions. These are assuming most leagues use Fleaflicker's standard scoring structure. If you need clarification, or have funky league rules, feel free to shoot us an email question.

More Rankings: OVER/UNDER | Running Backs | Wide Recievers | Tight Ends | DSTs | Kickers

Welcome to the crapshoot. Generally speaking, with kickers in fantasy, you'd like to have a guy playing for a team that's going to put a lot of points on the board. Of course, you'd rather field goals than extra points, so an offensive machine might be the kiss of death. Good luck to all.

Best value: Josh Scobee. The Jags are good enough to move the ball on the Titans. The Titans are good enough to stop the Jags. Translation: Look for multiple field goals.
Worst value: Rob Bironas. The Titans aren't good enough on offense to pile up the scoring opportunities. You may be looking at a single field goal or extra point here.

The Rankings
1. Nick Folk, Cowboys, at CLE
2. Nate Kaeding, Chargers, vs. CAR
3. Stephen Gostkowski, Patriots, vs. KC
4. Adam Vinatieri, Colts, vs. CHI
5. Mason Crosby, Packers, vs. MIN

Training camps are underway, the NFL season is right around the corner, and to get you ready for 2008, FanHouse previews all 32 teams, "heat index" style. We'll rate each club in 10 categories on a scale of 1 to 10, high score wins.

Quarterback: Bear in mind, I'm a tremendous Philip Rivers fan. So despite the hilarity of Ape's Marmalard skits, I don't laugh (much). And the fact that everyone focuses on Rivers poor throws amuses me some, since Norv Turner consistently put him in horrible situations for most of the season. I won't mention that he has the stones to go toe-to-toe with Tom Brady sans ACL. Anyway, two years ago he was prepared to take his game to the next level and somehow regressed in 2007. Won't happen this season, providing his coach is smart. Crap. Heat Index: 8

Running Back: Am I allowed to give a heat index of 11? Because, like Nigel's amps, LaDanian Tomlinson is a little bit louder/better than anyone else. The loss of Michael Turner hurts a little, but the poor man's lightning-thunder backup combo of Darren Sproles and Jacob Hester is going to be a pretty devastating change of pace factor for opposing defenses. Heat Index: 11

Wide Receiver: Vincent Jackson was supposed to rise up and become a legit number one last year. Whoops. Fortunately, Chris Chambers and his potentially record breaking low catch rate (based on target % anyway) are in town now. Craig Davis will blossom decently this year and Malcolm Floyd is a pretty nasty, athletic freak, red zone target type. Oh yes, and Antonio Gates counts here too, so there's that. Heat Index: 9

Staff rankings were compiled by averaging the individual rankings of each member of Fantasy Fanhouse. The rankings are based on standard leagues where you gain points for yardage and scores. Or something ...

You've seen my thoughts on using a kicker in fantasy football before -- and if you haven't, click on the link, please. Those of you that are sane will agree and take action. Those that insist on using kickers, well, we've got the information for you. Please don't mistake my distaste for the position to mean that I didn't do the research. Our staff did the work necessary on this position to bring you the best fantasy data possible. Hopefully you put it to good use in your free league on fleaflicker.

The FanHouse top five
1. Nate Kaeding, Chargers
2. Nick Folk, Cowboys
3. Mason Crosby, Packers
4. Shayne Graham, Bengals
5. Phil Dawson, Browns