Who Should I Start? Jason Sanders or Chad Ryland

Tuesday, August 26, 5:18 PM

The Miami Dolphins placed kicker Jason Sanders (hip) on the Injured Reserve on Tuesday due to a hip injury, according to Adam Schefter of ESPN. It means that Sanders will be forced to miss at least the first four games of the 2025 season. It was announced on Monday that Sanders would miss four to five weeks, so his placement on the short-term IR isn't a huge surprise. Fantasy managers should obviously be avoiding the 29-year-old kicker in all leagues to begin the season. It's unclear who will kick for the Dolphins in Week 1 against the Indianapolis Colts on Sunday, Sept. 7, but whoever it is will merely be a deep-league streaming option in fantasy. Miami did work out kicker Eddy Pineiro on Tuesday. Sanders has spent all seven of his NFL seasons with the Dolphins and has made 84.6% of his 221 field-goal attempts over 116 games played.

Saturday, September 6, 11:15 AM

Arizona Cardinals kicker Chad Ryland finished in K2 territory (K18 overall) last season despite hitting 87.5% of his field goals. The Cardinals' offense stalled out in a handful of games, which hurt Ryland's overall production since he wasn't getting into field goal range all the time and wasn't bolstering his fantasy output with extra point attempts. According to RotoBaller's rankings, Ryland is projected to be the K15 and could even finish a bit higher if the offense can be more consistent this season. For Week 1, he's projected to get 8.1 fantasy points, but there are better options for teams in 12-team leagues.