Daniel Carlson or Dominic Zvada: Who Should You Start?
Preliminary board2026 Week 1 · deterministic head-to-head · Verdicts based on PPR scoring.
Verdicts sharpen as practice reports land.
Start Zvada — the red-zone opportunity and game script edges are too wide to ignore.
Dominic Zvada gets more red-zone stalls to kick from (1.9 to 1.5 per game) and plays in the better game script (23.5 implied team points to 20.8). Carlson's edge is attempt volume, 2.1 to 2.1 projected attempts. The gap is narrow.
Daniel Carlson
7.77.77.7 Projected Points
Dominic Zvada
8.18.18.1 Projected Points
Why Daniel Carlson
Toss-UpToss-up — K21 by consensus, projects K23 this week: kicks indoors, and 1.5 red-zone stalls a game.
- Kicks indoors — no weather risk.
- 2.1 FG tries projected, just over the 2.0 league median this week.
- NO's offense stalls in the red zone 1.5 times a game (2025) — that's where kicker points come from.
- Vegas has NO at 20.8 points as 7-point dogs.
Latest on Carlson
The Saints are signing free agent kicker Daniel Carlson, his agents told The NFL Network's Mike Garafolo and Ian Rapoport.
ESPN · Aug 24, 2026
Reported by the sources listed — not independently verified.
Why Dominic Zvada
StartStart — projects K20 this week: 1.9 red-zone stalls a game, and 8.1 pts projected vs DAL.
- 2.1 FG tries projected, just over the 2.0 league median this week.
- NYG's offense stalls in the red zone 1.9 times a game (2025) — that's where kicker points come from.
- Vegas has NYG at 23.5 points as 1.5-point dogs.
Head-to-head stats
| Metric | Daniel Carlson | Dominic Zvada |
|---|---|---|
| Projected points | 7.77.77.7 | 8.18.18.1 |
| Consensus rank | K21 | — |
| Projected FG attempts | 2.1 | 2.1 |
| Red-zone stalls / game | 1.5(2025) | 1.9(2025) |
| Kicking conditions | Indoors, no weather risk | — |
| Implied total · spread | 20.8+7.0 | 23.5+1.5 |
| Field-goal % | 81.5%(2025) | — |
| Depth chart | K1 | K1 |
Signal breakdown
- 7.7 vs 8.1 projected PPR pointsDominic Zvada +
- Consensus position rankeven
- 2.1 vs 2.1 projected attemptsDaniel Carlson +
- 1.5 vs 1.9 red-zone stalls per gameDominic Zvada +
- Kicking weathereven
- Implied 20.8 vs 23.5 team pointsDominic Zvada +
- No injury designationseven
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