David Buehler

Buehler scored 114 points (10th in the league) in his first year as the Cowboys starter last season, despite missing eight field goals and two extra points. Buehler's erratic kicking, though, moved the Cowboys to sign Kris Brown late in the season as insurance. The team released Brown this offseason, but they did draft Dan Bailey from Oklahoma State to compete with Buehler in training camp, though the veteran is the obvious favorite. Buehler displayed one of the strongest legs in the league last season, connecting on a league-high four field goals from 50 and beyond. An excellent athlete, Buehler made 10 special teams tackles last year, though playing with that kind of abandon increases his injury risk. With Tony Romo's return from injury, a dynamic Cowboys offense should provide Buehler with plenty of scoring opportunities. Last season, even though Romo missed the last 10 games, Buehler still ranked seventh in the league with 32 field-goal attempts and fourth with 44 PAT attempts. But if Buehler is to increase his fantasy value, he'll have to improve his accuracy. He missed three field goals in the 30-39 range and three in the 40-49 range last season. Late-season weather concerns are a minimum, and Buehler has the potential to be a top-five fantasy kicker with a more accurate leg and a healthy Romo.

Buehler takes over as the Cowboys field-goal kicker after Nick Folk and Shaun Suisham combined to miss 11 field goal in 2009. The biggest problem was from beyond 40 yards as Folk and Suisham were just 7-of-15 from that distance. The Cowboys hope to fix that with the strong-legged Buehler, who booted a leagueleading 29 touchbacks last year as the Cowboys kickoff specialist. Buehler should receive plenty of scoring opportunities from a Cowboys offense that finished second in total yards last season. Dallas awarded its kickers 41 PATs and 31 field goals last season.

A similar showing this season could vault Buehler into the top-10 in kicker scoring. Buehler did not attempt a field goal last season, but assuming he shows the accuracy from college that made him a fifth-round pick of the Cowboys last year, he is shaping up as a nice sleeper for 2010.

Kickoff specialist could have fantasy value if Nick Folk gets hurt.