Brandon Aubrey has signed a new contract making him the league’s highest-paid kicker. Per reports, it’s a four-year deal worth $28 million.
That puts him a half million per year above Ka’imi Fairbairn, who signed an extension in March.
More notably for our purposes is deciding whether it makes sense to spend draft capital on these guys, trying to get an edge at a position where there are plenty of serviceable options.
Last year, those who went after kickers earlier got some rewards. The top 3 prospects (at least one my board) were Aubrey, Fairbairn and another kicker with ties to Texas, Cameron Dicker, and all three finished in the top 4 at the position.
That, of course, is just one year. If we instead look at the previous season, the top 3 kickers on my board finished 2nd, 11th and 25th in scoring.
Let’s look at it this way. Since the league moved to 17 games in 2021, the five kickers who’ve finished 10th have averaged about 129 points. We might fairly consider that a decent estimate for what we’d get at the position is we waited before filling the position, relying on a combination of late picks and waiver acquisitions. So the value of going after a kicker earlier can be expressed by how much better they are than that decent 129 points of baseline production.
Last year, those top 3 came in 19, 26 and 31 points above the 129-point mark.
In the below chart, see the 15 kickers how were ranked 1st, 2nd or 3rd at the position by Fantasy Football Index entering the season. Six of those 15 (40 percent) finished well above 129 points. Another six (40 percent) finished below 129. And the remaining three finished above 129 points, but not dramatically so.
Overall, the 15 coveted kickers that are listed averaged 132.6 points. The league-wide average in those seasons was 121.1 kicking points, and the average of the 10th-best teams was 129.2.
In the chart, I’m using traditional NFL points – no bonuses for long kicks, and no penalty for missed kicks. (And I’m guessing for now that Aubrey, Dicker and Fairbairn will be my top 3 entering the 2026 season.)
| PRODUCTION FOR COVETED KICKERS | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Tm | Player (FFI) | G | Pts | Rk | ~Value |
| 2021 | TB | Ryan Succop (1) | 17 | 131 | 10 | 2 |
| 2021 | BUF | Tyler Bass (2) | 17 | 135 | 6t | 6 |
| 2021 | KC | • Harrison Butker (3) | 16 | 122 | 15 | -7 |
| 2022 | BAL | Justin Tucker (1) | 17 | 142 | 2 | 13 |
| 2022 | CIN | • Evan McPherson (2) | 16 | 112 | 17t | -17 |
| 2022 | LV | Daniel Carlson (3) | 17 | 137 | 3t | 8 |
| 2023 | BAL | Justin Tucker (1) | 17 | 147 | 2 | 18 |
| 2023 | LV | • Daniel Carlson (2) | 17 | 110 | 23 | -19 |
| 2023 | ATL | • Younghoe Koo (3) | 17 | 123 | 12t | -6 |
| 2024 | DAL | Brandon Aubrey (1) | 17 | 150 | 2t | 21 |
| 2024 | BAL | • Justin Tucker (2) | 17 | 126 | 11t | -3 |
| 2024 | KC | • Harrison Butker (3) | 13 | 92 | 25 | -37 |
| 2025 | LAC | Cameron Dicker (1) | 17 | 148 | 4 | 19 |
| 2025 | DAL | Brandon Aubrey (2) | 17 | 155 | 3 | 26 |
| 2025 | HOU | Ka'imi Fairbairn (3) | 15 | 160 | 2 | 31 |
| 2026 | DAL | Brandon Aubrey (1) | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| 2026 | LAC | Cameron Dicker (2) | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| 2026 | HOU | Ka'imi Fairbairn (3) | ? | ? | ? | ? |
—Ian Allan
