Getty Younghoe Koo of the Atlanta Falcons.
Welcome to Fantasy Football Start ‘Em, Sit ‘Em Kickers for Week 8 of the NFL season. Our kicker edition features a prominent name looking to get back to his dominant ways after laying a dud one week ago.
* Reminder: Start ‘Em, Sit ‘Em is intended to present you with the non-obvious choices for your fantasy lineup. We dig deep into player matchups, scoring trends, and other factors to best help you with your fantasy decisions. Be sure to also check out our weekly fantasy football kicker rankings to better gauge where these start-sit options compare to the rest of the options at the position.
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Kickers: Start ‘Em
Start of the Week: Mason Crosby vs. MIN
After a brilliant three-game streak of 11-plus points to start the season, Crosby has failed to eclipse 7.0 points in three consecutive games. The good news, one of those 11-plus point outings came against the Vikings, who Crosby faces off with again this week. The Vikings allow 3.29 more points to opposing kickers this season than any other team in football. Only one of their opponents at the position has scored fewer than 12 points this year.
Brandon McManus vs. LAC
McManus’ two-game streak of 18-plus points came to a screeching end in Week 7, producing just 5.0 points. While I’m not saying he’s ready to simply hop back on his streak of 18-point outings, a matchup with the Chargers is certainly a good place to start. Four of L.A.’s six opponents at the position this season have scored double-digit points. They’ve also allowed four field goals of 50-plus yards on the year. McManus has hit on five kicks of such distance in 2020.
Younghoe Koo at CAR
Koo crushed fantasy owners a week ago, mustering up a meager 2.0 points. However, don’t lose faith just yet. This is a guy whose 13.4 ppg average heading into last week was the most amongst all kickers (min. two games). In Koo’s most recent outing vs. Carolina (Week 5), the placekicker racked up 13.0 points, the start of what would become a current three-game streak of opposing kickers to score 11.0-plus points against the Panthers.
Sleeper: Jake Elliott vs. DAL
Elliott has been useless for much of the season, scoring a total of 12.0 points over his last four games. So naturally, we’re debating plugging him into our lineup. The Cowboys have allowed an average of 13.0 points to kickers over five of their seven games this season, including three games of 12-plus points.
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Kickers: Sit ‘Em
Sit of the Week: Chris Boswell vs. BAL
While not dominant, Boswell has been serviceable, scoring 8.0-plus points in all but one game this season. However, the Ravens have held all but one opposing kicker to less than 7.0 points this season, with two of the kickers failing to produce a single point.
Jason Sanders vs. LAR
After back-to-back 18.0-plus point performances from Week 4 through Week 5, Sanders came back down to earth in Week 6 posting a modest 6.0 points. Now back from a bye, we can likely expect an output similar to his Week 6 performance against the Rams. Los Angeles has held all but one opposing kicker to 7.0 points or fewer this year.
Buyers Beware: Rodrigo Blankenship at DET
Over the first six weeks of the season, Blankenship was tied for the highest-scoring fantasy player at his position (11.3 ppg). He saw his production drop slightly in his last outing, but has still scored at least 8.0 points in every game this season. Yet, Detroit hasn’t allowed more than 7.0 points to an opposing kicker since Week 2 and are allowing an average of just 3.0 ppg to the position since returning from their Week 5 bye.