Kickers get overlooked until the week they cost you a fantasy matchup, and Week 1 is loaded with sneaky traps hiding behind familiar names. A star kicker returning from injury or stuck behind a stalled red-zone offense can quietly bleed points, while a lesser-known leg in a high-powered attack racks up attempts nobody drafted for. Get these calls right, and you’ll squeeze extra points out of the one position most managers set on autopilot.
Here are two kickers to trust with confidence and two you need to bench this week.
Week 1 Start ‘Em Kicker
Cameron Dicker, Chargers vs. Cardinals
Dicker enters the season as the No. 1 projected kicker for Week 1, with an 8.3-point projection that tops every other option at the position. That ranking is backed by real substance: Dicker made 38 of 41 field goals in 2025, a 92.7% conversion rate, and finished fourth among all kickers with 148 total points.Watch sports LIVE with
Los Angeles’s offense enters 2026 as one of the league’s more efficient scoring units, and Arizona’s defense provides a favorable early-season matchup. Dicker’s accuracy from all distances, paired with a Chargers offense expected to move the ball consistently, makes him a rare kicker worth trusting with confidence rather than treating as a streaming afterthought. That kind of aggressive, high-percentage profile is exactly what fantasy managers want from a Week 1 kicker, since misses at makeable distances are what tank weekly scores.
Jake Bates, Lions vs. Saints
Bates ranks second in Week 1 kicker projections at 8.2 points, trailing only Dicker. He was reliably productive in 2025, totaling 135 points on 27 made field goals out of 34 attempts.Detroit’s offense plays indoors and has consistently ranked among the NFL’s most explosive scoring units, which historically creates plenty of field-goal chances even when drives stall inside the 10-yard line. Facing a Saints team in transition, Bates should see a healthy number of scoring opportunities in a game that could get out of hand quickly in Detroit’s favor. Detroit’s dome environment also removes weather as a variable, another reason Bates projects with unusual consistency for the position.
Week 1 Sit ‘Em Kicker
Tyler Bass, Bills at Texans
Bass carries obvious name value from his career 84.5% field-goal accuracy and a franchise-record 61-yard kick, but last season ended before it began. He was placed on injured reserve to start 2025 with hip and groin issues, underwent surgery and missed the entire season.That makes Week 1 his first real NFL action in over a year, an uncomfortable spot to trust blindly regardless of Buffalo’s offensive talent. Leg strength and timing often take real snaps to shake off after a lower-body surgery, and a road environment against Houston adds further uncertainty. Until Bass proves his surgically repaired hip and groin are fully behind him, he belongs on the bench. Betting against that track record in his first real game action is a real gamble, even against a favorable-looking Texans matchup.
, Chiefs at Broncos
Butker’s name recognition remains strong, but his supporting cast tells a different story. Kansas City finished 2025 with a 6-11 record and scored just 362 points all season, one of the least productive offensive outputs of Butker’s career. He still converted 33 of 38 field goals for an 86.8% rate, but a stalling Chiefs offense limited his overall scoring chances to 130 points on the year.A road opener at Denver against a divisional rival on Monday night does not project as a get-right spot. If the Chiefs’ offense again struggles to finish drives in the red zone, Butker’s fantasy output depends heavily on volume that may simply not be there in Week 1. Treat him as a streaming replacement candidate rather than an automatic lineup lock, and look toward more explosive offensive environments like the Chargers or Lions instead. Fantasy managers chasing his name recognition should remember that field-goal attempts, not accuracy alone, drive weekly kicker scoring, and Kansas City simply hasn’t generated enough of them.
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