Kickers … they are the last item on your fantasy checklist.

You have meticulously selected your starting quarterback, receivers, running backs and tight ends. Cleverly managed to find quality backups. Analyzed schedules to maximize your D/ST. And then, for some unknown reason, most of you essentially pick your kicker out of a hat. Thinking there is almost no difference, you just select anyone, any warm body with a strong kicking leg.

STOP!

As fantasy owners we spend a lot of time on D/ST analysis and the difference between the top team and No. 12 (the last start-worthy team in a 12-team league) is 3.11 FPts/G (data gathered from 2006-2015). Meanwhile, the difference between the No. 1 kicker and No. 12 isn’t much different - 2.11 FPts/G.

Although there are many unknowns when choosing a kicker for your fantasy roster, you CAN gain an advantage by doing homework on kickers too.

I’ll start by giving you two important facts. The first one, if you are anything but a novice, you already know. The second one may surprise you.

New England’s Stephen Gostkowski is the best and most consistent placekicker in the NFL. Considering he’s been the No. 1 kicker over the past four seasons that’s not exactly “stop-the-presses” news.

Here’s a slightly more interesting tidbit.

Do not pick a Washington kicker; whether it’s Dustin Hopkins or anyone else. Over the past 10 NFL season 31 of 32 teams have managed to produce at least one season with a kicker in the top-12. Only the Washington Redskins have failed to find even one fantasy-worthy kicker.

What I’ve found is - it’s less about the kicker and more about team philosophy. I’ll give you two examples.

The New Orleans Saints, under the direction of Drew Brees the past 10 seasons, have been an elite, high-scoring offense (27.4 PPG), but their kicker has managed to make it into the top-12 just two times. The Saints offense has been too good, meaning their kicker is attempting too many extra points and not enough three-pointers after stalled drives.

By the same token, for many years the Baltimore Ravens have lived by a strong defense (OK, not last season) and a mediocre offense. They won with a strategy of don’t make any mistakes on offense and produce just enough points to allow Ray Lewis and his defense to win the game. The result was that seven times in the past 10 seasons a Ravens’ kickers (Justin Tucker, Billy Cundiff and Matt Stover) has finished in the top-12.

Here is where it gets interesting.

In the last ten seasons, 60 different kickers have produced at least one fantasy-worthy season, but only 10 teams have produced a kicker at least 50% of the time. Of that group, three teams (Baltimore, Dallas and New England) have produced a start-worthy kicker in each of the last five seasons while Seattle has a current streak of four in-a-row.

So if an owner wants the best percentage of hitting on his kicker selection in 2016, it would seem he should choose from the above four team options.

Gostkowski (ADP 137.1), Steve Hauschka (152.9), Tucker (155.4) and Dan Bailey (164.4) - pick any of the four and based on history you should be guaranteed a solid fantasy kicker.

At the other end of the spectrum are the Jaguars, Jets, Titans and Rams who have not had a top-12 kicker in at least five seasons. Now you may think that second-year QB Marcus Mariota, Blake Bortles, the return of Ryan Fitzpatrick or rookie Jared Goff may change all that, but why go out on the limb when there is much easier low-hanging fruit.

There are also seven teams that have produced just one fantasy-worthy season in the last five years -Carolina, Chicago, Kansas City, Miami, New Orleans, Oakland and Philadelphia. However, Graham Gano (2nd), Robbie Gould (8th) and Cairo Santos (6th) did it just last season so they get can’t be completely crossed off the list.

Gano (152.9) is currently being selected second off the board behind Gostkowski, but I’m concerned last season was a “career year.” He had a league and career-high 59 extra-point attempts (made 56) and connected on 30-of-36 field goal tries, including another career-high 15 from 40-yards or more.

Back to the low-hanging fruit, if you don’t get the previously mentioned four options, there are still a couple of trustworthy veterans to be had. Matt Bryant (172.8) qualified in four of the past six seasons and Mason Crosby (164.5) in seven of the last nine years with the Packers offense expected be better in 2016 due to the return of star wideout Jordy Nelson.

Bottom line, however, is that after the top-four its “caveat emptor” – let the buyer beware.