The Agony of Da Feet

All of us who've played fantasy football for years, know that kickers are a crap shoot. My personal theory on kickers is to play a kicker on a team with a good offense which isn't strong passing the ball and is against a good, but not great defense. I don't necessarily like playing kickers against terrible teams, because 4 or 5 extra points isn't always beneficial.

A number of owners felt the impact of kickers this weekend and now probably hate the position more than many head coaches in the NFL. Jay Feely missed two chip shots (one was blocked) resulting in a -5 week. If he had made both field goals, he would of had 7 meaning the misses were a 12 point swing for the teams that had him. The Norsemen2 Vegas dream is over because of Feely as they would be sitting at 151.34, above the cut line, nervously awaiting tonights game.

Another poor performance was turned in by the 2nd most accurate kicker in NFL history...Ryan Longwell...as he doinked a 37 yarder resulting in a -2 scoring week instead of 4. These extra 6 points would have been huge for Bumps & Bruises (143.7), Gridiron Hitmen (142.46) and Delta4Q (131.9 + Hakeem Nicks tonight).

The third kicker letdown was for the current bubble team...Pencil Neck Geek. Apparently the owner was too busy sharpening his/her pencil week 9 to pay attention to the rules or forums stating that no pick ups were allowed after that week. They chose to role into the Vegas bracket with Neil Rackers as their only kicker. I don't see how you can go into a 6 week playoff stretch and not have at least one back up at each position. Kickers probably get hurt less often than other positions, but as we've found out the past few weeks with Suisham, Folk, Hauschka and Elam that a kickers job is only as safe as his last kick. The Geek squad is less than a point below the cut as it stands (148.26) and they had no replacement for the injured Rackers. Although I'm sure some teams would have liked this problem and taken a 0 at kicker instead of the -5 or -2 that Feely and Longwell gave them!

An interesting note is that it's possible that 3 owners from Wisconsin have a chance to make the final 15. Jeff T from Kenosha is pretty much a lock to get in with his 153.04 points plus Hakeem Nicks yet to play. Then you have James from Two Rivers who is currently below the cut line at 138.68 and needs a solid night out of Steve Smith to make the cut. And yours truly, Scott W from Grafton is sitting at 127.82 with Jason Campbell and Steve Smith playing tonight. Since the Packers played a big role in the high cut line this week, it would be appropriate that 3 Wisconsin owners made the trip to Vegas next week.

Once I get my 25 points tonight and am safely above the cut line, I'll wish the rest of you good luck. Until then, I need to look out for my own!