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Nick Mariano looks at all 2026 fantasy football Week 7 kickers -- streamers, starts, sits, targets, avoids, and waiver wire pickups. Our Week 7 rankings and tiers for all of the NFL kickers.
With another four-team bye on tap for Week 7 and many big legs returning to action after resting during the Week 6 byes, we've got plenty to talk about! Many chose to dump their bye-week kickers in place of other needs, which we agree with, but now there's a healthy waiver race to run. Between all of that, some fluid injury situations, and a new slate of matchups to explore, let's find ourselves some winners.
Thanks to our early projections, we have several streamer candidates for your consideration to win the week ahead. Outside of the handful of elite kickers, nothing is absolute in this realm, and other players are always worth your consideration. This is our chance to sift through the simple leaderboard view and extract Ks in good spots who are widely available.
We'll talk through some low-rostered kickers who should help you towards a win in Week 7. Analyzing kickers can feel like a luck-driven exercise, but there are factors we can use to increase our chances of enjoying those spike weeks. So, warm up those legs and let's chat about which kickers are worth streaming and who's ranked where going into Week 7.
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Week 7 Kicker Rankings for Fantasy Football
| Kicker Tier |
Kicker Rank |
Kicker Name |
Team | Opp. |
| 1 | 1 | Will Reichard | MIN | IND |
| 1 | 2 | Spencer Shrader | IND | @MIN |
| 2 | 3 | Ka'imi Fairbairn | HOU | NYG |
| 2 | 4 | Tyler Loop | BAL | CIN |
| 2 | 5 | Brandon Aubrey | DAL | @PHI |
| 3 | 6 | Evan McPherson | CIN | @BAL |
| 3 | 7 | Jason Myers | SEA | KC |
| 3 | 8 | Jake Bates | DET | GB |
| 3 | 9 | Eddy Pineiro | SF | @ATL |
| 3 | 10 | Trey Smack | GB | @DET |
| 3 | 11 | Matt Gay | LV | LAR |
| 4 | 12 | Cairo Santos | CHI | NE |
| 4 | 13 | Chris Boswell | PIT | @NO |
| 4 | 14 | Ryan Fitzgerald | CAR | TB |
| 4 | 15 | Chase McLaughlin | TB | @CAR |
| 4 | 16 | Harrison Butker | KC | @SEA |
| 4 | 17 | Dominic Zvada | NYG | @HOU |
| 5 | 18 | Daniel Carlson | NO | PIT |
| 5 | 19 | Nick Folk | ATL | SF |
| 5 | 20 | Andy Borregales | NE | @CHI |
| 5 | 21 | Wil Lutz | DEN | @ARI |
| 5 | 22 | Chad Ryland | ARI | DEN |
| 6 | 23 | Rams Fill-In | LAR | @LV |
| 6 | 24 | Andre Szmyt | CLE | @TEN |
| 6 | 25 | Jason Sanders | NYJ | MIA |
| 6 | 26 | Jake Elliott | PHI | DAL |
| 6 | 27 | Joey Slye | TEN | CLE |
| 6 | 28 | Riley Patterson | MIA | @NYJ |
*Who will the Rams settle on? A reunion with Joshua Karty or Tanner Brown? They won't be high up on the list, whoever they are.
Kicker Streamers to Target for Week 7
Only players rostered in fewer than 50% of fantasy football leagues are considered streamers, and I try to aim lower than that. Respect the tiers and don't get bogged down by pure ordinal rank.
**Will Reichard is available in 41% of Yahoo leagues following Minnesota’s bye and is an immediate pickup for everyone. He’s matchup-proof, but facing the Colts at home is a strong play to boot.
Jake Bates (DET) vs. Green Bay Packers
24% Rostered
Through five games, the Lions’ 4.2 red zone trips per game is near the top of the chart, though so is their touchdown rate on said trips. They had stalled out often enough in Weeks 4 and 5 to give Bates double-digit points against Carolina and Arizona. It’s hard to see Bates log four total field goals in four games, then another four FGs in Week 4’s loss to Carolina.
Those willing to gamble on that upside in a prolific offense that is cozy in a dome environment should make sure Bates is rostered. Detroit will host Green Bay and Minnesota in the coming weeks, both of which yielded totals over 50 in last year’s matchups when played in Detroit (versus 40 and under in the road ones).
Cairo Santos (CHI) vs. New England Patriots
39% Rostered
In two full games with Caleb Williams under center and reasonable weather conditions, Santos has kicked 12 extra points and only two (long) field goals for 21 total points. Combine that with his missing a 56-yarder in Week 6, and this leads to many being down on his leg.
All I’ll highlight here is simply that the Bears are indeed a stellar offense when healthy (and not facing the Vikings in crappy weather), but they’re about to face better defenses than the Panthers and Falcons over the next couple of weeks (NE, SEA). Their bottom-tier 3.96 points per red zone entry should rise with a healthy QB, but it’s notable all the same.
Santos may be a FG volume machine if they can move the ball enough with Williams to set him up for attempts. These new kickoff rules really help field position!
Trey Smack (GB) at Detroit Lions
30% Rostered
Smack nailed three field goals and two extra points in the win over Dallas, benefiting from the several dropped TDs by Jordan Love’s receivers. It was his first game with multiple FGs since Week 2, and now they’ll get another plus offensive matchup at Detroit.
It was critical to see this performance out of him after missing three kicks in Week 5, and Josh Jacobs’ likely return to play in Week 7 should lead to a more balanced offense that can sustain more drives. Even though we appreciate stalled drives, Green Bay being a bottom-10 offense at 21.2 points per game is not helping Smack out. It does seem his coach was correct in blaming Week 5's woes on the wind:
LaFleur on Trey Smack’s three misses: “I think he was trying to overcompensate for the wind.”
LaFleur said that’s something he thinks the rookie will learn from but it “doesn’t shake my confidence in him.”
— Rob Demovsky (@RobDemovsky) October 12, 2026
Chris Boswell (PIT) at New Orleans Saints (Paris, France)
26% Rostered
Boswell set a new season-best mark with four field goals, two from beyond 50, and both extra points in the 26-19 win over Tampa Bay. He did miss one in the 40-49 bucket, but we’re happy with the results and the overall volume seen here. If he’d also missed one of the 50+ then I’d tap the brakes.
The Steelers are proving far more capable of moving the ball compared to their first two games of the year, but they’re still not consistent enough to close out drives. This has led to 10 FGs and 10 XPs for Bos in their last four games.
Compare that to five combined FG/XP in the first two, and you can see why we’re cooking here. The obvious follow-up is that Pittsburgh will travel to France to play the Saints, who boast one of the worst defenses at 29.7 points allowed per game. Travel makes games messy, perhaps leading to a second straight seven-kick effort.
Ryan Fitzgerald (CAR) vs. Tampa Bay Buccaneers
2% Rostered
It seems that Fitzgerald is being waved away as “yeah, he’s fine, but I’d rather take a name I recognize.” I would caution against that, as his 11-point standard scoring average between Weeks 2-6 is tied with Dominic Zvada (another overlooked leg) for fourth-best in that span. But Fitzgerald only kicked one FG and four XP in Week 1’s outrageous 59-37 loss to Chicago.
We know it can take a lot for kickers to break through the anchoring bias that reels in attention, so those who had an unremarkable Week 1 can go for a long time without any circling back. The Panthers are a rather potent offense in 2026, go figure, and now they’ll square up with the Bucs’ funnel defense. They’ve allowed the second-most points to opposing kickers thus far and remain a target.
Chase McLaughlin (TB) at Carolina Panthers
16% Rostered
After almost zero utilization in Weeks 4 and 5, McLaughlin and the Jalon Daniels-led offense moved the ball enough to find four FGs and an XP against Pittsburgh. We’re expecting Baker Mayfield back for Week 7, which raises the median projection for McLaughlin and the Bucs at Carolina. The kicker sunk a tailing 53-yarder to send Sunday's game into OT, as well as enhance his historical standing:
Chase McLaughlin now moves into sole possession of 10th place in @NFL history with 47 FGs made from beyond 50 yards 🙌 https://t.co/FoyWjCmwEL
— Tampa Bay Buccaneers (@Buccaneers) October 18, 2026
Most have a sour impression of Mayfield after some embarrassing turnovers and early losses, but the gunslinger is good for keeping the action high. McLaughlin was the second-best kicker in Weeks 1-3 when Mayfield was active, trailing only Evan McPherson in that window.
(On that note, McPherson is another solid add, given that most rest-of-season Cincy matchups are promising. He’s only 31% rostered after the bye-week dip.)
Matt Gay (LV) vs. Los Angeles Rams
27% Rostered
As we discussed last week, perhaps we are indeed going to treat Gay and the Raiders as someone we boost up when playing at home. The Raiders fought to a 33-30 loss to Buffalo, with Gay sinking three mid-range FGs and three XPs. Even including the gnarly day in New England, Gay is a top-six kicker at 10.7 PPG.
The good news is that we’ll now get another home game against a scrappy opponent in the Rams, who just allowed six FGs to Chad Ryland in a survivor-pool-blasting loss. Until Gay gives us a reason to doubt him within the dome, we’ll keep on riding the train to Pointsville.
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