Three kickers went in the sixth round of the draft. When a team uses a selection on that position, it’s with the expectation that he’ll probably win the job.
I would think Will Reichard (picture) will be kicking for the Vikings. He’s unusually experienced for a rookie, having attempted 100 field goals at Alabama. He connected on 80 of his last 93 there, making me think he’ll be fine. He’s college football’s all-time leading scorer, and he’s attempted a lot of pressue kicks in big games.
Joshua Karty, however, is the one that interests me more for fantasy purposes, with Sean McVay tending to put together kicker-friendly offenses. He’s been there for seven years, and three of those teams ranked in the top 3 in kicker. The Rams should have done it again last year but missed a league-high 38 points of kicks. If Karty can make the kicks (and he was just fine at Stanford), I think he’ll be a top-5 kicker.
Cam Little is the other option, and he looks like more of a camp-battle guy, competing against Riley Patterson.
Draft history indicates that when a kicker is selected in the last three rounds of the draft, he’s got about a 50-50 chance of sticking around for a while. In the 32-team era, 34 have been selected in rounds 5-7, and 18 have kicked more than half the season in their first year. That includes three notable kickers who ended up with new teams before October – Harrison Butker, Jake Elliott and Daniel Carlson.
Of these 34 kickers, 11 scored 110-plus points in their first season – about 1 in 3 (and I’ve got those guys flagged with black dots).
As group, these kickers made 81 percent of their field goal attempts in their first season. There’s a self-selection bias of sorts in that number, with the guys who were missing kicks tending to be replaced.
KICKERS IN LAST THREE ROUNDS OF DRAFT | |||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Year | Player | Rd | School | G | XP-XPA | FG-FGA | Pts |
2002 | Hayden Epstein, Jac. | 7 | Michigan | 6 | 13-13 | 5-9 | 28 |
2003 | • Josh Brown, Sea. | 7 | Nebraska | 16 | 48-48 | 22-30 | 114 |
2004 | Josh Scobee, Jac. | 5 | Louisiana Tech | 16 | 21-21 | 24-31 | 93 |
2004 | David Kimball, Ind. | 7 | Penn State | 0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 |
2005 | Dave Rayner, Ind. | 6 | Michigan State | 14 | 0-0 | 0-1 | 0 |
2005 | Paul Ernster, Den. | 7 | Northern Arizona | 1 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 |
2006 | Kurt Smith, S.D. | 6 | Virginia | 0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 |
2007 | • Mason Crosby, G.B. | 6 | Colorado | 16 | 48-48 | 31-39 | 141 |
2007 | • Nick Folk, Dal. | 6 | Arizona | 16 | 53-53 | 26-31 | 131 |
2007 | Justin Medlock, K.C. | 5 | UCLA | 1 | 0-0 | 1-2 | 3 |
2008 | Taylor Mehlhaff, N.O. | 6 | Wisconsin | 5 | 9-10 | 3-4 | 18 |
2008 | Brandon Coutu, Sea. | 7 | Georgia | 0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 |
2009 | Ryan Succop, K.C. | 7 | South Carolina | 16 | 29-29 | 25-29 | 104 |
2009 | David Buehler, Dal. | 5 | Southern Cal | 16 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 |
2012 | • Blair Walsh, Min. | 6 | Georgia | 16 | 36-36 | 35-38 | 141 |
2012 | Greg Zuerlein, St.L. | 6 | Missouri Western | 16 | 26-26 | 23-31 | 95 |
2012 | John Potter, Buf. | 7 | Western Michigan | 6 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 |
2012 | Randy Bullock, Hou. | 5 | Texas A&M | 0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 |
2013 | • Caleb Sturgis, Mia. | 5 | Florida | 16 | 33-33 | 26-34 | 111 |
2013 | Dustin Hopkins, Buf. | 6 | Florida State | 0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 |
2014 | Nate Freese, Det. | 7 | Boston College | 3 | 6-6 | 3-7 | 15 |
2014 | Zach Hocker, Was. | 7 | Arkansas | 0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 |
2017 | • Harrison Butker, Car. (K.C.) | 7 | Georgia Tech | 13 | 28-28 | 38-42 | 142 |
2017 | • Jake Elliott, Cin. (Phi.) | 5 | Memphis | 15 | 39-42 | 26-31 | 117 |
2017 | Zane Gonzalez, Cle. | 7 | Arizona State | 16 | 25-26 | 15-20 | 70 |
2018 | Jason Sanders, Mia. | 7 | New Mexico | 16 | 35-36 | 18-20 | 89 |
2018 | Daniel Carlson, Min. (Mn.-Oak.) | 5 | Auburn | 12 | 24-24 | 17-21 | 75 |
2019 | • Matt Gay, T.B. | 5 | Utah | 16 | 43-48 | 27-35 | 124 |
2019 | Austin Seibert, Cle. | 5 | Oklahoma | 16 | 30-35 | 25-29 | 105 |
2020 | • Tyler Bass, Buf. | 6 | Georgia Southern | 16 | 57-59 | 28-34 | 141 |
2020 | Sam Sloman, LAR (Rams-Ten.) | 7 | Miami (Ohio) | 8 | 23-26 | 10-13 | 53 |
2020 | Justin Rohrwasser, N.E. | 5 | Marshall | 0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 |
2021 | • Evan McPherson, Cin. | 5 | Florida | 16 | 46-48 | 28-33 | 130 |
2023 | • Anders Carlson, G.B. | 6 | Auburn | 17 | 34-39 | 27-33 | 115 |
2024 | Cam Little, Jac. | 6 | Arkansas | ? | ? | ? | ? |
2024 | Joshua Karty, LAR | 6 | Stanford | ? | ? | ? | ? |
2024 | Will Reichard, Min. | 6 | Alabama | ? | ? | ? | ? |
—Ian Allan