Who Should I Start? Chase McLaughlin or Rodrigo Blankenship

Monday, March 11, 5:15 PM

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers agreed to an undisclosed three-year deal to re-sign kicker Chase McLaughlin on Monday, according to a source. McLaughlin will stay with the Buccaneers after going 29-for-31 on his field-goal attempts and 33-for-33 on his extra points in 17 regular-season games. The 27-year-old's success rate on field goals last year set a new single-season record, so it's no wonder why Tampa wanted the kicker back for another go-round in 2024 as their primary kicker. From a fantasy perspective, McLaughlin finished as the No. 16 kicker in terms of overall fantasy points in 2023. The Bucs offense should remain largely the same this year with quarterback Baker Mayfield and top wideout Mike Evans sticking around, so McLaughlin should enter the year as a matchup-based streamer at the kicking position in fantasy.

Monday, August 21, 6:14 PM

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers waived kicker Rodrigo Blankenship on Monday. Blankenship lost the kicking battle to Chase McLaughlin in training camp this summer and will now look to latch on with another team before the start of the 2023 regular season. The 26-year-old spent last year with the Indianapolis Colts and Arizona Cardinals, going 4-for-5 on his field-goal tries and 4-for-5 on extra points in just three total games. As long as Tampa doesn't bring in more competition for McLaughlin to close out the preseason, he should enter Week 1 as the team's starting kicker. McLaughlin, 27, made 83.3 percent of his 36 field-goal attempts and made all 21 of his extra-point tries in 16 games with the Indianapolis Colts in 2022. The kicking position in Tampa won't be as exciting in fantasy now that Tom Brady isn't running the offense in 2023.