Who Should I Start? Anders Carlson or Chad Ryland

Tuesday, August 27, 5:32 PM

The Green Bay Packers released second-year kicker Anders Carlson on Tuesday, according to a source. Carlson has lost the competition for the starting kicking job in Green Bay heading into Week 1 of the regular season. Veteran Greg Joseph is now competing with Alex Hale, but Joseph is the clear front-runner for the job, especially now that Carlson is out of the picture. The 26-year-old Carlson, a sixth-round selection last year out of Auburn, had an abysmal rookie campaign with the Packers, making only 81.8% of his 33 field-goal attempts during the regular season and also missing five of his 39 extra-point tries in 17 starts. The younger brother of Las Vegas Raiders kicker Daniel Carlson will now be looking for work elsewhere in just his second NFL season. In leagues with kickers in play, fantasy managers should be able to find better options than Joseph.

Tuesday, August 27, 8:31 PM

The New England Patriots released kicker Chad Ryland on Tuesday, according to a source. Ryland has officially lost the starting kicking competition in New England to Joey Slye and will now be looking for work elsewhere. The 24-year-old was the Patriots' starting kicker in 2023 after being drafted in the fourth round out of Maryland. He made just 64% of his 25 field-goal attempts in his rookie season while making 24 of his 25 extra-point tries for a bad offense. Ryland could end up rejoining the team's practice squad, but he's obviously not even close to being fantasy relevant. Slye, 28, made 79.2% of his 24 field-goal attempts for the Washington Commanders in 17 games last year, missing three of his 35 extra-point tries. Fantasy managers should avoid Slye in pretty much all formats in 2024.