Tucker Kraft was in the middle of a breakout season when his year ended in Week 8. He has spent the offseason working back from a torn ACL. Green Bay has publicly signaled it plans to be careful with him early. Should fantasy managers take a chance on Kraft in 2026?
Should You Draft Tucker Kraft in Fantasy Football?
As of early September, Kraft has an ADP in PFN’s Free Fantasy Mock Draft Simulator of 73.2. Depending on how many people are in your league, that’s roughly an eighth-round pick. PFN’s fantasy experts, though, are a lot higher on him. Jason Katz and Kyle Soppe, with their two boards combined, have him as the 52nd overall player. That’s 73rd in the ADP, 52nd in the PFN rankings. That has him as TE4 with a projected 12.81 points per game.
You’re looking at somebody who’s a consistent producer, especially last year before he got hurt. He had 18.4 points in one game, 26.3 in another, and there were two other games where he surpassed 10 points as well. He only played about half of last year, 8 games, but in half of them he was really good. He was above the fantasy curve for a tight end. Even in the games where he was a little bit down, he still had decent outings: 5 points, 7 points. You could certainly do worse than that at tight end. Lord knows how many games I lost last year due to inconsistent tight end play.
With Kraft, there’s a pretty big discrepancy between his PFN rank and the ADP. If it were around that PFN rank, I wouldn’t reach on Kraft necessarily. I think there are a lot of really good young tight ends on the rise who could be intriguing, guys like Tyler Warren and Harold Fannin Jr., who are being drafted consistently later than Kraft for the most part.
But I would take Kraft in that 73.2 ADP range. I’m not reaching on a tight end this year. I think there’s a lot of good value. If you can get any of the top eight tight ends, I’d say go for it. If you notice there’s a run on tight ends, then maybe start to consider it. But Kraft as an eighth-round pick, as somebody who was on pace for over 1,000 receiving yards before he got hurt, is somebody that’s definitely worth taking there. At 73.2, I’m saying buy on his ADP in fantasy football this year.
FANTASY RANKINGS: PFN’s FREE Fantasy PPR, Half-PPR, and Non-PPR Rankings
Tucker Kraft’s Week 1 Fantasy Outlook
Analysis provided by PFN Analyst Kyle Soppe.
Kraft tore his ACL on Nov. 2 and, at the time, it seemed like fantasy managers would have to slow play him into 2026.
The draft markets largely reflected that thought, but everything the Packers and Kraft have told us suggests that this budding star is close to full strength.
If that’s true, there’s a real chance that we are getting near-peak George Kittle at a significant discount.
This matchup is on the wrong side of average (the Vikings were the second-best red-zone unit in 2025), but given how Green Bay thinned out the receiver room this offseason, I think the role/potential is simply too much to ignore.
Kraft did make waves in the middle of August in saying that he’ll be managed through the first half of the season before being thrown to the wolves, and that’s going to scare off some. I’m not overly concerned because I trust the quality of snap: he was targeted on 36.4% of his red-zone routes a season ago, a rate that checked in just behind Brock Bowers and ahead of Colston Loveland/Trey McBride.
Kraft was my favorite TE to draft this summer, and I’m planning on starting him for every game in which he’s active. With confidence.
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Where Kraft Ranks Among 2026 Tight Ends
- Brock Bowers | LV
- Trey McBride | ARI
- Colston Loveland | CHI
- Tucker Kraft | GB
- Tyler Warren | IND
- Sam LaPorta | DET
- George Kittle | SF
- Harold Fannin Jr. | CLE
- Kyle Pitts Sr. | ATL
- Dalton Kincaid | BUF
- Isaiah Likely | NYG
More rankings can be found in PFN's PPR Tight End Rankings.
