Some items just come with the package. Like, when you order a steak, you often get a choice of vegetable, even if you don’t like veggies. When you buy a variety pack of virtually anything, there is always one nasty option included that no one likes. At the movies, if you get there on time, you can’t avoid the trailers. And when you draft a fantasy team, in most leagues, you’re required to fill a defense/special teams spot and have a kicker.
Now the good news is, many speciality leagues — think: mostly private leagues — have ditched the kicker, as has the Madman’s personal office league.
That’s our first recommendation for a draft strategy involving DST and kickers, don’t draft kickers – kick them off the roster entirely. If you haven’t yet, call your commissioner. If that doesn’t work, call your Congressional representative. If that doesn’t work, hold a league-wide protest.
If, despite all your efforts, you can’t reason with the powers that be and kickers remain in your league, draft them with your last pick. Even if you are virtually certain your deepest sleeper will be there in the final round, don’t risk it, get them before spending draft capital on a kicker.
And when you do pick a kicker from whatever is left at the very end of your draft, pick one who you know has the job, who ideally plays indoors, and who ideally is in an offense capable of scoring points.
If none fit this criteria, don’t panic. Bad offenses have trouble scoring touchdowns, which can lead to more field goal opportunities, so draft one whose team doesn’t have a productive goal-line running back.
Don’t overthink it. After all, you should be planning to drop whatever kicker you do get when his bye week rolls around, with the rarest of exceptions.
DST require a bit more thought. You need to know your league’s scoring system, because if points allowed per week is a factor (as it should be), you don’t want one from a team that is going to be involved in shootouts every other week (we’re looking at you, AFC West guys).
Really good offenses with pretty good defenses are the sweet spot. So we would love to get the Bills, but chances are, they are going to be taken long before we ever would consider a DST. So we’ll take from the best of the rest once we get around to it.
That time is normally after we have at least four running backs, four wide receivers, a quarterback and a tight end. And at that point is just when we become open to the idea, not a fixed spot where we actually plan to take a DST.
If there are excellent value picks still remaining, we often like those before a DST. If we’re planning to platoon at QB or TE, we routinely look for a second option before a DST. If we get to the penultimate round and still don’t have one — this happens often — that is the point when we specifically chase a DST.
When we wait this late, we don’t normally find a season-long option we like, but that’s fine. We’re comfortable streaming from week-to-week, so we’ll target those teams that have a strong Week 1 matchup, or beyond.
We prefer those playing at home, but Week 1 doesn’t cooperate with this notion. So our favorite “opener” DSTs include the Ravens, Saints, Broncos and Eagles, though these options might be gone by then. Sometimes the Colts last, and we’re OK keeping them for a few weeks. If all else fails, we would be satisfied with either the Browns or Panthers.