Week 5 Kicker Rankings & Pickups: Wil Lutz In A Great Matchup At Home

The continuing trend I look for with kickers each week is volume and facing defenses that allow a ton of yards. While we often look at the position as one tough to predict, there is a method to the madness. High total games, kickers who get volume, and positive weather is a recipe for fantasy points at the kicker position. With scoring up and defenses struggling early on in 2020, we have seen kickers take advantage of some larger than normal volume. Mason Crosby and Matt Prater are on bye this week and Younghoe Koo is still dealing with an injury. With more high scoring games in play this weekend we should continue to see plenty of big kicker scores.

Week 5 Kicker Rankings & Projections

Top Week 5 Kickers

Not much changing at the top of the kicker charts this week as Justin Tucker is in a key spot. Baltimore’s offense has been solid, although not quite at 2019 levels and Tucker is seeing more volume because of that. He ranks 5th in scoring so far this season and is averaging 10.5 fantasy points per game. He will face a Bengals team allowing the 7th most fantasy points per game to kickers. Baltimore has one of the higher implied totals on the slate as do the Chiefs with Harrison Butker. The Raiders have allowed 13 XPA and 8 FGA so far this season and should be higher in fantasy points allowed but a few teams have missed extra points against them. It is still early, as Butker ranks middle of the group in scoring, but offensively this team has crushed leaving a few fewer chances each game.

Rodrigo Blankenship continues to be a name to pick up as he is less than 55% owned out there across the major sites on average. He is second in scoring and is coming off another big week. Over this season he has made 4/5 from 40-49 yards and has three straight double-digit games. In 12-team kicker leagues he should be scooped up at this point, but in lesser leagues go out and get him. This Colts offense is moving the ball well but they haven’t been keen on finishing drives with touchdowns, which bodes well for Blankenship’s future.

Wil Lutz is another one who is generally ranked top five coming into the league but is sitting mid-table in scoring with Gould and Butker. Lutz has had an up and down start in volume but we can generally rely on Lutz for getting a lot of opportunities. He had zero attempts last week just due to the Saints offense being super-efficient.

Streaming Options

There are a handful of streaming options this week, starting with Joey Slye. Seemingly he remains out there despite being a top ten scoring kicker and he has another terrific matchup this week. Atlanta is allowing a ton of offense but of course, most of these drives are turning into touchdowns instead of field goal chances. That will begin to even out and we continue to want to hammer bad defenses. Jason Myers is a guy who is just not seeing a ton of chances because Russell Wilson is playing on a god-like level. However, he is still getting 4-5 extra points a game and when he can get that 1-2 field goal chances he is a strong option and can have a reliable week. Ka’imi Fairbairn is someone I liked a lot last week and when you factor in the matchups this season for him it makes sense why he has struggled in Weeks 1 and 3. This week is a good matchup as the Jaguars have allowed the 4th most fantasy points to opposing kickers this season.

Tough Week 5 Kicking Matchups

Jake Elliott was in the tough matchups last week and scored just five fantasy points. Elliott is already struggling because the offense isn’t able to move the ball up and down the field. Elliott ranks just 17th in scoring and has only eight attempts. Pittsburgh has allowed the 4th fewest points per game to opposing kickers. I am not putting much stock into Philadelphia being able to move the ball against this Steelers defense. Randy Bullock has a tough matchup this week and might hit his first down week after leading all kickers in scoring through the first four weeks of the season. The matchup is not a good one, however, as the Ravens have allowed the 5th fewest fantasy points to opposing kickers this season. They also are not going to be aiming for a ton of field goals trying to chase the Ravens offense all game.