Rams’ Jeff Wilkins Retires; Josh Brown Signs

One of the better kickers in football retired this week in Jeff Wilkins. Now, Josh Brown has been lured from the Seahawks to replace Wilkins. I haven’t seen word yet on who will be the kicker for the Seahawks yet.

Thus far in his career, Brown has been a slightly above average kicker fantasy wise. He usually doesn’t put up any monster games, but you can count on him to get 2 fgs with an extra point. Of course, that was with the ‘Hawks. Brown suffered last year due largely to Seattle’s anemic running game, but he could be somewhat of a sleeper if the Rams improve their line. Steven Jackson would be the large reason why. Bulger seems on very shaky ground. (I know the line was bad, but Bulger didn’t seem individually all that good himself.)

All that said, I can tell you right now Brown won’t be on any of my teams. I shared a dynasty team with a friend one season and our playoff bid as well as $150 guaranteed for making that seed went up in smoke when Brown shanked a 40 yarder while Seattle was blowing out somebody. It could have been vs. Philadelphia on MNF. Brown has never really impressed me anyways. In recent memory, I don’t ever remember him having mulitple explosive games that caught my attention ala Kris Brown and Phil Dawson. Also, when I had him two years ago, he never gave that semi consistent 8-9+ points you really need to get out of your kicker.

As far as kicker strategy, wait a long time to pick one up. There always end up being top 8 kickers that go undrafted and in general there is a lot of uncertainty and unpredictability that go along with kickers. After all, they don’t have too much influence on how many opportunities they receive and teams can have swings from year to year - see Browns and Bears of ‘07.

I don’t even know my sleeper kicker yet. Last year it was Stephen Gostkowski, but Belichick does wierd stuff like going for it on 4th and 3 instead of kicking the 45 yarder. Maybe he learned his lesson, maybe he didn’t. Still, I need to study up for I divulge my diamond(s) in the rough.