Fantasy Football Rankings 2025: Kicker and DST tiers reveal who to target late in drafts to get an edge
If your league uses kickers and DSTs, this will give you a leg up on the competition
By
Dave Richard
•
1 min read
When considering which kicker and/or DST to draft, the thing to remember revolves more around "when," not "who." Because kickers and defense/special teams are the easiest parts of a starting lineup to replace, it's important to be flexible with who you roster at those positions and not to get too attached unless you truly have a difference-maker, which is often tough to determine before the season starts.
When thinking about who to target at both kicker and DST, start first with the elite options at each position, then consider early-season schedule above all else. Building rankings with that second criterion in mind will make these tiers look less like other positions because we're generally not looking to project how the final point totals will look at the end of the season for most of the players we target. Rather, we're looking for who will give us the edge early before we move on to other options with more advantageous schedules a few weeks into the season.
The reason these two positions are combined into one set of tiers is that you should typically be looking to take both at the end of your drafts, and it's rare we'll take one even in the third-to-last round.
Dave's rankings: QB tiers | RB tiers | WR tiers | TE tiers | K/DST tiers
| Third-to-last round | Second-to-last round | Last round |
|---|---|---|
| Broncos DST | Steelers DST | Texans DST |
| Eagles DST | 49ers DST | Chiefs DST |
| Lions DST | Ka'imi Fairbairn | |
| Brandon Aubrey | Jake Bates | |
| Evan McPherson | Cameron Dicker | |
| Ravens DST | Wil Lutz | |
| Bills DST | Joshua Karty | |
| Jets DST | Tyler Bass | |
| Commanders DST | Harrison Butker | |
| Cardinals DST | Chase McLaughlin | |
| Dustin Hopkins | ||
| Tyler Loop |
