Being a kicker is hard for a variety of reasons.
First of all, kickers are the only member of the team to not receive a dot in the simulation. While I understand that each kick play would look identical, and make simming take more time overall, it’s still sad to create a player, have a player number, and not have any representation on the field. Ever.
Second to this, kickers don’t get to have any real prospects for awards. There are awards for the best offensive player, and defensive player, but no definitive ‘kicker of the year’ award. There are positional awards, but that doesn’t encompass all facets of the kicker (punting, field goals and extra points). I get that maybe it’s harder to quantify what is worth more points in ranking kickers in this manner, but it’s still something that can be frustrating and moderately sad when you’re trying to make a name for yourself in the league.
Now you might say that ‘Kickers don’t get all the glory, why pick a kicker if you’re just gonna whine about it’ because kickers are needed and kickers are necessary. A team won’t have a chance to win without a good offense or defense, but kickers can turn the tides in a game more often than not. That last minute field goal, missing the extra point, or a good punt instead of the 20 can make the difference in a game. It’s really important to know that this can be the difference between winning and losing, and multiple games become close for this reason. You can’t just ignore the kickers, not without changing the game completely, and it’s important to make sure that the kickers are feeling the love on their team, and in the league.
Furthermore, kickers don’t even get records the way that other positions get. One of the easiest to track - furthest kick - isn’t even something tracked by the league as a record. If you wanted to attempt to have the longest field goal, it’s not something that we’re recording (at least that I could find, I’d be happy to be proven wrong!! It might be in the index but under the sections that are titled “DSFL Special Teams Records”, it isn’t something that is tracked and recorded for history and on the wiki and specifically linked sections).
Lastly - Offensive and defensive players know that they’ll get field time, always. Whether you are winning or losing, you get to play. You may not get to have the ball thrown to you, or run as much as you would hope, but your offensive line has a shot. Same goes for the defense. Kickers, however, are at this weird mercy that they want their team to suck just enough that they have to punt or kick field goals, but not enough that they’re losing. It can be incredibly difficult to want to root for your team to not quite score the touchdown, or hope that if you’re going 3 and out that they do it deep in your territory so you can kick a longer punt.
Being a kicker is hard, and sometimes a thankless job. If you win the game on the field goal, you’ll be lauded as the hero, but if you lose the game on the field goal then it becomes all your fault that the team lost. (But seriously, the team losing is by no means the kickers fault. If the team is hinging on one kick from the kicker, both the offense and the defense didn’t do their jobs.)
Hopefully this sheds some light on the plight of the kickers. (Which, unrelatedly but relatedly - we need dedicated long snappers. These Tight End long snappers aren't doing justice in the league. Long snappers are people too, guys.)
First of all, kickers are the only member of the team to not receive a dot in the simulation. While I understand that each kick play would look identical, and make simming take more time overall, it’s still sad to create a player, have a player number, and not have any representation on the field. Ever.
Second to this, kickers don’t get to have any real prospects for awards. There are awards for the best offensive player, and defensive player, but no definitive ‘kicker of the year’ award. There are positional awards, but that doesn’t encompass all facets of the kicker (punting, field goals and extra points). I get that maybe it’s harder to quantify what is worth more points in ranking kickers in this manner, but it’s still something that can be frustrating and moderately sad when you’re trying to make a name for yourself in the league.
Now you might say that ‘Kickers don’t get all the glory, why pick a kicker if you’re just gonna whine about it’ because kickers are needed and kickers are necessary. A team won’t have a chance to win without a good offense or defense, but kickers can turn the tides in a game more often than not. That last minute field goal, missing the extra point, or a good punt instead of the 20 can make the difference in a game. It’s really important to know that this can be the difference between winning and losing, and multiple games become close for this reason. You can’t just ignore the kickers, not without changing the game completely, and it’s important to make sure that the kickers are feeling the love on their team, and in the league.
Furthermore, kickers don’t even get records the way that other positions get. One of the easiest to track - furthest kick - isn’t even something tracked by the league as a record. If you wanted to attempt to have the longest field goal, it’s not something that we’re recording (at least that I could find, I’d be happy to be proven wrong!! It might be in the index but under the sections that are titled “DSFL Special Teams Records”, it isn’t something that is tracked and recorded for history and on the wiki and specifically linked sections).
Lastly - Offensive and defensive players know that they’ll get field time, always. Whether you are winning or losing, you get to play. You may not get to have the ball thrown to you, or run as much as you would hope, but your offensive line has a shot. Same goes for the defense. Kickers, however, are at this weird mercy that they want their team to suck just enough that they have to punt or kick field goals, but not enough that they’re losing. It can be incredibly difficult to want to root for your team to not quite score the touchdown, or hope that if you’re going 3 and out that they do it deep in your territory so you can kick a longer punt.
Being a kicker is hard, and sometimes a thankless job. If you win the game on the field goal, you’ll be lauded as the hero, but if you lose the game on the field goal then it becomes all your fault that the team lost. (But seriously, the team losing is by no means the kickers fault. If the team is hinging on one kick from the kicker, both the offense and the defense didn’t do their jobs.)
Hopefully this sheds some light on the plight of the kickers. (Which, unrelatedly but relatedly - we need dedicated long snappers. These Tight End long snappers aren't doing justice in the league. Long snappers are people too, guys.)