Fantasy Look: AFL Kickers
Patrick Daly
Tuesday February 1, 2005
In general, kickers can make or break you, but because it’s often tougher to predict their performance don’t grab one too early. You are much better off building a solid team around the quarterback and receivers first since there normally isn’t much difference between the first kicker and the eighth kicker when you look at scoring averages. Gaining a point or two advantage here isn’t worth losing a reasonably good receiver.
I’ve listed eight players that should help your team this season, followed by a couple of kickers that might step up and could be worth a late round pick.
Quick Picks
1. Mark Lewis, Las Vegas -- Lewis had a strong rookie season in Detroit and the move to Las Vegas should provide him more opportunities.
2. Remy Hamilton, Los Angeles -- Although I expect the Los Angeles offense to slip a little, Hamilton should get plenty of chances, including a few more field goal tries, and he’ll take advantage of them.
3. Keith Gispert, Chicago -- Gispert improved his accuracy last season and should continue to get scoring chances with a strong Chicago team.
4. Steve Vidatech, Columbus -- While Columbus may not be one of the more explosive teams in the AFL, Vidatech is very accurate and will make the most of his opportunities.
5. Dan Frantz, San Jose -- Frantz showed last season that he can be an accurate kicker, although his point total suffered in 2004 from a lack of field goal chances despite having the most extra point attempts and conversions.
6. Clay Rush, Colorado -- Rush finished last season with the lowest field goal percentage in his career, but if previous seasons are any indicator, he’ll be one of the top kickers, ready to take advantage of the scoring opportunities in Colorado.
7. Steve McLaughlin, Orlando -- McLaughlin replaces Jay Taylor, who has moved on to the NFL, and should see plenty of shots at points. His field goal percentage last season in Georgia was less than 25%, which is uncharacteristic for him, but I expect McLaughlin to bounce back with the Predators.
8. Gary Kral, Nashville -- Although Nashville is a new team, that may work for Kral with more field goal tries. He should last season in New York that he can be reasonably accurate.
Take a chance on…
1. Nelson Garner, Georgia -- Garner has always been a more than capable kicker and despite last season’s funk, he should be ready to go and get plenty of kicks with an improved Georgia offense.
2. Rob Bironas, New York -- Bironas had one of the lowest conversion percentages last season, but if he can improve on his first season, he’ll get plenty of opportunities with the Dragons.
The last piece of this preseason series will touch on the results of week one, which might change your draft strategy and provide an outline for making your picks whether you have a live draft or set automatic picks.
Patrick Daly has been an Arena Football League enthusiast since he first stumbled across the late-night ESPN broadcasts and has followed the Arizona Rattlers since their inaugural season in 1992. He graduated from Arizona State University with an engineering degree and is currently a member of a web development team for Direct Alliance in Tempe. Patrick currently resides in the Phoenix suburb of Chandler, Arizona with his beautiful wife, son and a very large football helmet collection.
