Fantasy Football 2024: Week 1 K Streaming

Week 1. It is a time when every NFL Fantasy Football team is in the same place. 0-0.

By the time you read this, you’ll likely be sweating different roster decisions, whether it’s to stash a player from the waiver wire or exactly who to start in your flex. We’ve all been there.

The kicker position in fantasy football is becoming more odd, as many leagues have chosen to bar the position from fantasy lineups altogether. Why? We’ve all been on the wrong side of a matchup where someone loses because the kicker made five field goals or a couple of insanely long ones.

If you are in a league with a kicker slot every week, you likely did one of two things. You took someone like Justin Tucker or Harrison Butker early, so you wouldn’t have to worry about it. Or you may have not even drafted one hoping you could stream kickers for the season.

If you’re the latter, here are five kickers to consider among streaming options in Week 1.

Blake Grupe, K, New Orleans Saints (vs. CAR)

Don’t trust Carr to finish drives

The big knock on this New Orleans Saints offense for a few seasons now has been their inability to finish drives. Unless it’s a huge play from Alvin Kamara out of the backfield or Chris Olave hauling in a deep ball, the Saints have had trouble consistently moving the chains.

That’s what we’re going to eye in this matchup. The Saints have electrifying players like the two just listed, and they will make plays. If they don’t take it to score themselves and they just get it inside the red zone, do you trust Carr to cap off the drive?

If not, kicker Blake Grupe is a great choice here. He was 6-of-9 from 50+ yards last season and 8-for-10 from 40-49 yards. That might be precisely the ranges he’s kicking from on Sunday. Expect at least three attempts.

Jake Bates, K, Detroit Lions (vs. LAR)

There will be points in this one

This matchup is one that Fantasy Football fans and NFL fans alike will be interested in. The last time we saw the Los Angeles Rams was in a one-point playoff loss to the Detroit Lions .

This time around, the two meet for a primetime Sunday night matchup that currently has the highest point total of any game on the Week 1 slate, according to DraftKings.

Jake Bates ‘ journey to the NFL hasn’t been conventional. He started as a college soccer player at Central Arkansas for two seasons before transferring to Texas State to play football. Even when on the football team, he didn’t kick field goals. He was the kickoff specialist only.

After transferring to Arkansas in 2022, he filled the same role and was named First Team All-SEC.

Bates made his name in the UFL, particularly for his big leg. In Week 1 of the 2024 UFL season, he drilled a 64-yard field goal before going on to make two more 60-plus-yard field goals that season on his way to being named to the UFL First Team.

The Detroit Lions took a chance and signed Bates to a two-year deal. Don’t be surprised if they send him out there for a couple of long attempts in this one.

Jason Sanders, K, Miami Dolphins (vs. JAX)

Miami will come out hot

According to ESPN, Jason Sanders is currently owned in just 16.4% of leagues. One thing that we learned from this Dolphins offense last year was that they came out of the gates hot.

Over the first eight games of the season, the Dolphins averaged 33.87 points per game. While that might be a bit propped up from the 70 points they scored against Denver in Week 3, it’s still one of the league’s top offenses.

This means Sanders will likely have many opportunities. You’ll just have to hope the Dolphins elect for a field goal in a fourth-down situation and opt not to go for it.

Even then, you’ll likely get a handful of extra points. If you can get two field goals entered into the mix, you’re looking at a double-digit performance from Sanders.

Tyler Bass, K, Buffalo Bills (vs. ARI)

Take advantage of weather while it lasts

Both the Buffalo Bills and Arizona Cardinals will have slightly different looks to them when they do battle on Sunday.

The Bills are coming off an offseason in which they traded star wideout Stefon Diggs to the Houston Texans. There will likely be some growing pains as second-round draft pick Keon Coleman steps into what has been a high-powered offense.

Allen still has Khalil Shakir , who looked to be coming along nicely at the end of last season and into playoffs. He’s also going into year two with tight end Dalton Kincaid , who will likely see his workload and target share increase without Diggs.

Two reasons to start Bass in this contest. They’ll still be getting used to playing without Diggs in critical situations.

The second is the weather. If you’re going to play Buffalo’s kicker, you want to do so in the fall months, not the unpredictable winter months. This game has the chance to be a high-scoring one, even if Buffalo doesn’t cap off drives and settles for field goals.

Take the chance on Bass early in the season.

Cairo Santos, K, Chicago Bears (vs. TEN)

How will new offense look?

This game will likely bring some national buzz as Chicago Bears and NFL alike want to see how rookie quarterback Caleb Williams will look in his first start. He had some of his highlight-reel plays in the preseason but left some to be desired in other areas.

How will that translate to Week 1? Expect some of those big plays. You’ll likely see them pop up on your X feed, or you’ll see them if you’re a subscriber to NFL Redzone. What they might not show you is how they ended the drive.

Don’t be surprised if some of those razzle-dazzle plays end up in stalled drives, which means Cairo Santos could end up pretty busy. Add that to the fact that the Tennessee Titans allowed the most FPPG to opposing kickers in 2023, and Cairo Santos is a must-start in Week 1.

All statistics courtesy of Pro Football Reference and all fantasy data courtesy of FantasyPros unless stated otherwise.