Who Should I Start? Jason Sanders or Rodrigo Blankenship

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.

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.