Fantasy Football Week 13 kicker rankings: Matt Ammendola waived by Texans as Brandon McManus takes #1 spot in projections

With the arrival of Week 13 in fantasy football, life gets a little more complicated with six teams on byes. At a critical stage of the season, managers will be without players from the Baltimore Ravens, Buffalo Bills, Chicago Bears, Las Vegas Raiders, Minnesota Vikings and New York Giants.

This is going to make life tough for those with starters from these teams and one area that may get overlooked is kickers. Kickers can be the difference between winning and losing in fantasy football and with the playoffs looming, the pressure is on. With the tie-breakers in most leagues being points scored, every kick counts and there is no such thing as overkill.

Making Week 13 even more complicated is the fact that the Houston Texans waived kicker Matt Ammendola. To muddy the water further, Ammendola who missed both his field goal attempts in Sunday's loss to Jacksonville, is expected to be re-signed to the Texans practice squad.

The Texans claimed Derek Barnett off waivers on Monday, but with Ammendola set to be re-signed to the practice squad, it's unclear who will start for Houston. With fantasy football waivers set for Wednesday, this does not help managers who need to know who the best kickers will be before the time.

In Week 12 we saw some tremendous kicker displays. New Orleans Saints kicker Blake Grupe led fantasy football with 17 points from 5 FGs, while Cairo Santos came in second for the Chicago Bears with 14 points from 4 FGs.

What is notable is that these performances came in low-scoring outings from their offenses, and that is often hard to predict. Santos and the Bears are on a bye in Week 13, so he will have to be replaced at least temporarily.

Here are the projections for each starting kicker in Week 13 of fantasy football (minus Houston as the situation is uncertain at present):

Fantasy Football Week 13 Kicker rankings

1. Brandon McManus, Jaguars vs. Bengals - 7.17 points
2. Brandon Aubrey, Cowboys vs. Seahawks - 7.12 points
3. Chris Boswell, Steelers vs. Cardinals - 7.12 points
4. Wil Lutz, Broncos @ Texans - 7.03 points
5. Jake Moody, 49ers @ Eagles - 6.70 points
6. Younghoe Koo, Falcons @ Jets - 6.69 points
7. Harrison Butker, Chiefs @ Packers - 6.62 points
8. Chase McLaughlin, Buccaneers vs. Panthers - 6.61points
9. Lucas Havrisik, Rams vs. Browns - 6.54 points
10. Joey Slye, Commanders vs. Dolphins - 6.54 points
11. Jason Sanders, Dolphins @ Commanders - 6.52 points
12. Riley Patterson, Lions @ Saints - 6.37 points
13. Cameron Dicker, Chargers @ Patriots - 6.20 points
14. Matt Gay, Colts @ Titans - 6.10 points
15. Eddy Pineiro, Panthers @ Buccaneers - 6.07 points
16. Nick Folk, Titans vs. Colts - 5.99 points
17. Greg Zuerlein, Jets vs. Falcons - 5.90 points
18. Jason Myers, Seahawks @ Cowboys - 5.89 points
19. Matt Prater, Cardinals @ Steelers - 5.89 points
20. Blake Grupe, Saints vs. Lions - 5.81 points
21. Jake Elliott, Eagles vs. 49ers - 5.79
22. Chad Ryland, Patriots vs. Chargers - 5.68 points
23. Evan McPherson, Bengals @ Jaguars - 5.51 points
24. Anders Carlson, Packers vs. Chiefs - 5.45 points
25. Dustin Hopkins, Browns @ Rams - 5.43 points