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Nick Mariano looks at all 2026 fantasy football Week 8 kickers -- streamers, starts, sits, targets, avoids, and waiver wire pickups. Our Week 8 rankings and tiers for all of the NFL kickers.
Week 8 is here whether you're ready or not, and it brings yet another four-team bye that sees top legs like Ka'imi Fairbairn and Eddy Pineiro take a breather. Regardless of your attitude towards stashing a bye-week kicker away, many of us will be forced to dump them for other reinforcements across the roster. We are also coming off of the worst kicking week of the 2026 season, which we'll dig into a bit before the notes.
Thanks to our early projections, we have several streamer candidates for your consideration to win the week ahead. Even the most talented kickers can have poor weeks, otherwise reliable offenses can simply sputter out, and mediocre teams can fall into the end zone over and over again. In general, we still have healthy trends to follow and highlight those 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 8. 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. Let's not neglect those K slots now, so join me in having a roundtable discussion about some kickers who are worth streaming and who's ranked where going into Week 8.
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Week 8 Kicker Rankings for Fantasy Football
| Kicker Tier |
Kicker Rank |
Kicker Name |
Team | Opp. | Y% Rost |
| 1 | 1 | Will Reichard | MIN | @DET | 94% |
| 1 | 2 | Spencer Shrader | IND | @JAX | 88% |
| 1 | 3 | Brandon Aubrey | DAL | ARI | 97% |
| 2 | 4 | Evan McPherson | CIN | TEN | 49% |
| 2 | 5 | Chase McLaughlin | TB | ATL | 23% |
| 2 | 6 | Cam Little | JAX | IND | 57% |
| 3 | 7 | Tyler Loop | BAL | @BUF | 82% |
| 3 | 8 | Jason Myers | SEA | CHI | 89% |
| 3 | 9 | Jake Bates | DET | MIN | 71% |
| 3 | 10 | Tyler Bass | BUF | BAL | 16% |
| 4 | 11 | Matt Gay | LV | @NYJ | 38% |
| 4 | 12 | Cairo Santos | CHI | @SEA | 44% |
| 4 | 13 | Chris Boswell | PIT | CLE | 50% |
| 4 | 14 | Chad Ryland | ARI | @DAL | 2% |
| 4 | 15 | Trey Smack | GB | CAR | 40% |
| 4 | 16 | Ryan Fitzgerald | CAR | @GB | 9% |
| 4 | 17 | Drew Stevens | WAS | PHI | 1% |
| 4 | 18 | Brandon McManus | LAR | LAC | 4% |
| 5 | 19 | Nick Folk | ATL | @TB | 8% |
| 5 | 20 | Harrison Butker | KC | @DEN | 33% |
| 5 | 21 | Wil Lutz | DEN | KC | 15% |
| 5 | 22 | Andy Borregales | NE | @MIA | 6% |
| 6 | 23 | Andre Szmyt | CLE | @PIT | 1% |
| 6 | 24 | Jason Sanders | NYJ | LV | 1% |
| 6 | 25 | Cameron Dicker | LAC | @LAR | 33% |
| 6 | 26 | Joey Slye | TEN | @CIN | 1% |
| 6 | 27 | Jake Elliott | PHI | @WSH | 6% |
| 6 | 28 | Zane Gonzalez | MIA | NE | 0% |
Kicker Streamers to Target for Week 8
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.
*Cam Little is available in 43% of Yahoo leagues and draws a fantastic matchup against the Colts, who ceded a top finish to Will Reichard in Week 8. He was available in a similar number of leagues after his bye, so let’s run that back!
**A quick note on overall kicker success in 2026 compared to 2025. Going into Monday night, SumerSports cited a dip in the 40-49 yardage bucket from 84.3% to 79.5% thus far. It had been healthy in Weeks 1-4 (83.8%), but has dropped to 75% in Weeks 5-7 (excluding MNF), with a season-low 68.8% (11/16) in Week 7.
In fact, Week 7 was the worst kicking week yet…by quite a bit! Kickers had hit from 40+ at least 70.3% of the time in each week, but that tumbled to 58.6% (17/29) in Week 7. Harrison Butker, Spencer Shrader, and Dominic Zvada each missed twice from distance! Shrader should be fine. The other two have questions to answer. Okay, let’s get onto the show!
Evan McPherson (CIN) vs. Tennessee Titans
49% Rostered
Sometimes Cincinnati’s offense will hum too well, which is what happened with McPherson only kicking five extra points in Week 7. This man drilled five field goals from 50+ in Cincy’s first three games, but hasn’t been asked to kick beyond 30 since then.
Variance can lull folks into overlooking his talent, but you won’t let that happen, right? The Bengals have a high implied team total of 28.5, and McPherson is a top five kicker on the week for me.
Tyler Bass (BUF) vs. Baltimore Ravens
16% Rostered
Bass and the Bills only slightly trail Cincinnati’s implied team total at 28.3, with Bass sinking three or more kicks in each of their last two games before the Week 7 bye. In fact, he’s made multiple FGs in four of their six games thus far, averaging a trio of XPs per game along the way.
While he’s missed two extra points, he’s made all 13 FG attempts after missing all of 2025 due to a sports hernia injury. Whether you believe Lamar Jackson suits up for Baltimore or not, that defense can (typically) put up resistance and force a few kicks. But the market seems to buy the optimism around Jackson’s return, which could create a shootout. The early 53-point over/under line is Week 8’s highest mark.
Cairo Santos (CHI) at Seattle Seahawks
44% Rostered
While Santos missed a kick for a third straight game, this was no cheapie at 53 yards, and it was vastly overshadowed by his connecting from 58 yards to seal Thursday’s win over New England. That 58-yarder set a new career high in his 13th NFL season (and would've been good from 60, for sure)!
Cairo Santos with a career-long 58-yarder to help seal the win for the 5-2 #Bears. https://t.co/u53PGLJnru
— Mike Garafolo (@MikeGarafolo) October 23, 2026
We’d like the 73.3% success rate to creep back up toward the 87.6% mark that he’s held over his last seven years as a Bear. But if Ben Johnson’s squad is going to stay aggressive and keep pressing into opposing territory. Chicago’s 67.1% rate of reaching the opponent’s side of the field trails only Dallas through seven weeks, per SumerSports. Exclude ones that started there, and they remain top five (62.1%).
The obvious caveat here is that traveling to Seattle is quite the challenge. If anyone can replicate how Minnesota halted Chicago’s aggression, it’s them. Even so, Santos had a deep field goal that game, and the weather won’t be nearly as dramatic as that monsoon. It’s power against power, and Santos has a chance to supply much of the action if CHI can’t quite reach the red zone.
Chase McLaughlin (TB) vs. Atlanta Falcons
23% Rostered
Tampa’s kicker remains perfect through seven games after hitting five XPs and a pair of FGs in the 43-13 rout of Carolina. McLaughlin is 9-for-9 from 40+, which is great to see after he went 17-for-21 from that distance in 2025. He’s tied with Fairbairn for the third-most FGs from that distance, with Reichard and Shrader at 12 and 13, respectively.
The Bucs’ big win was unorthodox, going through the defense in Baker Mayfield’s first game back. But the ground game and offensive line also looked good, so perhaps Mayfield and company can consistently scrap their way onto the opponent’s side of the field for McLaughlin to be in play. He’s kicked double-digit points in each game that Mayfield has started in ‘26.
Chad Ryland (ARI) at Dallas Cowboys
2% Rostered
He's launched nine field goals in Arizona's last two games and will get to kick in Dallas' dome in Week 8. Of course, Arizona's defense will have to put up more of a fight than they did in Week 5 against Detroit, who boasted a similarly sketchy defense for a high game over/under.
You'll recall Arizona lost 45-21 with no FGs from Ryland. Still, the matchup is solid, and his recent performance is worthy.
Drew Stevens (WAS) vs. Philadelphia Eagles
1% Rostered
Washington’s rookie hasn’t had an easy first year, missing three kicks in his first two games, but he’s at least gone 7-for-7 on FGs in the four games since. Of course, he’s also missed a pair of XP in there, but we’ll focus on the good. And right now, he and the Commanders are set up to tee off on Philadelphia’s flimsy defense.
Even without Terry McLaurin and Jacory Croskey-Merritt, they’re forecasted to win 21-16 by the early Vegas consensus. After seeing Dallas trample Philly at will on Monday night, I’m inclined to nudge Washington’s expected tally up. And that takes Stevens with it. I highlight at least one person who should be available to any reader, so here you go.
We'll hope that the accuracy and consistency improve, but we've known about his power since Iowa:
Drew Stevens from 58 yards out! Iowa cuts the lead to five.
CBS | Paramount+ https://t.co/aARkYzn8Ty
— CBS Sports College Football 🏈 (@CBSSportsCFB) November 8, 2025
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