2018 Fantasy Football Draft Prep: Updated DST and kicker Tiers and strategy

Don't want to look like an idiot and reach for a DST or a kicker on Draft Day? Dave Richard lays out the right time to go after his top-12 DSTs and kickers.

By Dave Richard

Aug 28, 2018 at 10:21 am ET • 2 min read

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If you've been on social media, you've seen campaigns against kickers and DSTs. A lot of people call them useless or random. They think they don't belong in Fantasy Football.

I'm a football purist and a Fantasy Football addict. Defense is obviously a huge part of pro football, and kickers certainly belong in the game too. I don't care if my league has kickers and DSTs or not, I just want to win leagues.

So for those of you who do have to start kickers and DSTs, this is for you.

Basically, DSTs and kickers should be picked in order of expected reliability. If you're taking one before the end of the draft (or spending more than a buck at auction), it's with the expectation that it/he will start every game regardless of opponent. Top DSTs should get picked ahead of the top kickers, but the top kickers deserve some props ahead of the better-than-average DSTs.

There are three acceptable times to draft a DST or kicker:

When you love your team so much that you want to lock up a top option to go along with it. Figure Round 11 to be that time.
When you are indifferent to the remaining quarterbacks, running backs, wide receivers and tight ends available. You might make a stinkface in Rounds 12 or 13.
When you have to draft one based on roster requirements. This would mean the last two rounds of your draft.

You should also be aware of your opponents' needs when considering a DST and/or kicker and game plan accordingly. This works better if you're picking toward the end of a round and can see if they've already drafted these positions or not. If they have, you can wait. If they haven't, you can pounce.

Let's get to it. Here are the combined tiers for DSTs and kickers heading into the final week of the preseason.

Fourth-to-last round	Third-to-last round
Rams DST	Chargers DST
Jaguars DST	Eagles DST
Vikings DST
Second-to-last round	Last round
Broncos DST	Jake Elliott
Greg Zuerlein	Saints DST
Justin Tucker	Wil Lutz
Stephen Gostkowski	Patriots DST
Texans DST	Harrison Butker
Ravens DST	Matt Prater
Matt Bryant	Adam Vinatieri
	Robbie Gould
	Packers DST
	Titans DST
	Graham Gano
	Chris Boswell