There are only 12 kickers who are rostered in at least 50% of ESPN fantasy football leagues right now, and three of them are on bye in Week 12 while another one is on the IR. There's a good chance you're looking for a new starting option this week.
And if you are, you're in luck. Streaming the position is nearly always a viable way to approach it, and unless you have the best of the best at the position, it's also typically going to be your best way to get a scoring edge in the kicker spot.
Here are the best streaming kicker options, available in at least 50% of ESPN leagues, to target in Week 12 fantasy football.
Fantasy Football Streaming Kickers Week 12
1. Chase McLaughlin, Tampa Bay Buccaneers (@ NYG) — 67.3% Available
Since fantasy managers are reluctant to ever roster two kickers, bye weeks will often make a really good one available who wouldn't usually be. Chase McLaughlin fits the bill after his Week 11 bye.
He hasn't been a high-upside option, but he's averaging 9.0 fantasy points per game on the season and has only fallen below 7 twice.
The Bucs rank top-12 in both yards per drive (11th, 33.7) and percentage of drives ending in points (7th, 44.9%), and that tends to create ideal conditions for fantasy scoring for a kicker. McLaughlin has attempted at least four kicks in each of his last four games, and volume has rarely been an issue. He's also a perfect 6-of-6 from 50-plus on the year, giving him the upside of some high-value fantasy kicks.
2. Jake Moody, San Francisco 49ers (@ GB) — 55.0% Available
Jake Moody disappointed in Week 11, but it's still hard not to love a 49ers kicker in fantasy football right now. Moody ranks No. 7 at the position in fantasy points per game on the year, Matthew Wright started one of the games Moody missed and ranks No. 2, and Anders Carlson's performance as a 49er would rank No. 4.
The Packers have held opposing kickers to a few real fantasy duds, but over the last four weeks they've still allowed 9.25 fantasy points per game to the position, and nothing about their 23rd-ranked defense (by PFF grade) or average starting field position they're allowing to opponents (15th-best in the NFL) suggests we should worry about the matchup.
"Start the 49ers kicker" may seem like a simple approach, but sometimes that's all you need.
3. Wil Lutz, Denver Broncos (@ LV) — 87.3% Available
The Raiders have allowed opponents to score points on 45.4% of their drives this season, thanks in part to giving up the most favorable average field position in the NFL.
Accordingly, kickers against the Raiders have scored double-digit fantasy points in a whopping eight of 10 games so far, and their average of 10.9 allowed per game is the third-highest in the NFL.
Wil Lutz has been stinking it up recently, but he's still converted a reasonable 86.4% of his field goal attempts on the season (a little above his career average) while knocking down 100% of his extra points. There's nothing about his play (or that of the Broncos' offense) that suggests they won't be able to take full advantage of this matchup, and we saw as much in Week 5 when Lutz scored 13 fantasy points.
This article was originally published on www.si.com as 3 Fantasy Football Streaming Kickers to Target in Week 12.