Kicking points are calculated differently depending on the context: in an NFL game, a field goal is worth 3 points and an extra point is worth 1. In fantasy football, the math gets more complex, with point values that scale by distance and penalties for misses. And in Australian Rules Football, the system is entirely different, built around goals and “behinds.” Here’s how each one works.
NFL Game Scoring for Kickers
In a live NFL game, the point values are straightforward. A successful field goal scores 3 points regardless of distance. A made extra point (the kick after a touchdown) scores 1 point. These values never change whether the kick is 20 yards or 55 yards.
The kick must be a place kick or drop kick made from on or behind the line of scrimmage. For extra points, the ball is snapped from the 15-yard line, a change the NFL made in 2015. Before that rule change, extra points were kicked from the 2-yard line, making them nearly automatic. Moving the snap back to the 15 turned the extra point into roughly a 33-yard field goal, adding real stakes to what was once a formality.
Standard Fantasy Football Kicker Scoring
Fantasy football platforms use a tiered system that rewards longer, harder kicks with more points. The most common scoring setup across major platforms like ESPN and Yahoo looks like this:
- Extra point made (PAT): 1 point
- Field goal made, 0 to 49 yards: 3 points
- Field goal made, 50+ yards: 5 points
- Field goal missed: negative 1 point
- Extra point missed: negative 1 point
So a kicker who hits two extra points, nails a 42-yard field goal, and connects on a 51-yarder would earn 1 + 1 + 3 + 5 = 10 fantasy points. If that same kicker also missed a 46-yard attempt, they’d lose a point, dropping to 9. The negative scoring for misses means inconsistent kickers can actually hurt your team’s total.
Distance Tiers and Platform Differences
Not every fantasy platform uses the same brackets. Sleeper, for example, lets league commissioners set custom point values for six separate distance ranges: 0 to 19 yards, 20 to 29, 30 to 39, 40 to 49, and 50-plus. Missed kicks can also be penalized differently by range, so missing a chip shot from 22 yards could cost you more than missing a 52-yard attempt. Any blocked field goal or extra point counts as a miss for your kicker on Sleeper.
This granularity means two leagues on different platforms can produce very different kicker rankings from the same real-world performance. If you’re joining a new league, check the scoring settings before your draft. A kicker who thrives on long attempts is far more valuable in a league that awards 5 or 6 points for 50-plus-yard kicks than in one that gives a flat 3 for everything.
Fractional and Decimal Scoring
Some leagues go further and award a fraction of a point for every yard of a field goal. CBS Sports, for instance, lets commissioners set up a system where a base field goal is worth 3 points, with a bonus of 0.1 points for every yard beyond 30. Under that setup, a 34-yard field goal earns 3.4 points, a 45-yard kick earns 4.5 points, and a 52-yard bomb earns 5.2 points.
This creates a smoother scoring curve instead of the sudden jumps between tiers. A 49-yard field goal and a 50-yard field goal are nearly identical in difficulty, but under standard tiered scoring, the difference is 2 full points. Fractional scoring eliminates that gap, which is why many competitive leagues prefer it.
How Kicker Efficiency Is Measured
Beyond raw points, analysts use more sophisticated methods to evaluate kickers. The simplest is field goal percentage: total makes divided by total attempts. But that number doesn’t account for difficulty. A kicker who goes 20 for 22 on attempts averaging 45 yards is performing at a much higher level than one who goes 20 for 22 on attempts averaging 28 yards.
To solve this, statisticians use models that estimate how likely an average NFL kicker would be to make each specific attempt, factoring in distance, time remaining, score differential, and whether the kicker is at home. A Yale University analysis built a model along these lines, comparing each kicker’s actual results against what an average kicker would have done in the same situations. The difference between actual and expected makes tells you how much value a kicker adds (or subtracts) compared to a replacement-level player.
A related metric is Expected Points Added, or EPA. This measures how much any play changes a team’s expected score. For a kicker, a made 48-yard field goal in a tie game adds significant expected points, while a miss from the same spot subtracts them. EPA captures not just whether the kick went through, but how much that make or miss shifted the team’s chances on the scoreboard.
Kicking Points in Australian Rules Football
If you searched this with Australian Rules Football in mind, the system works nothing like American football. In AFL, there are four tall posts at each end of the field. Kicking the ball between the two middle posts scores a goal, worth 6 points. Kicking between a middle post and an outer post (or hitting a post) scores a “behind,” worth 1 point.
A team’s total score is the sum of both. So a team with 10 goals and 8 behinds has scored (10 × 6) + (8 × 1) = 68 points. You’ll often see AFL scores written as “10.8.68” to show goals, behinds, and total. Unlike American football, there are no extra point attempts or distance bonuses. Every goal is worth 6 regardless of where on the field the player kicked from.