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Updated Tucker Kraft Fantasy Outlook 2026: Can the Packers TE Return from Injury to be Fantasy Relevant?
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 I Draft Tucker Kraft in Fantasy Football?
I really like Kraft, and he was pacing toward being a true league winner before the injury.
The numbers back that up completely. Across eight games, Kraft averaged 14.7 fantasy points per game. His 2.56 yards per route run ranked second at the position, and his 0.115 first downs per route run ranked third. Those are elite marks, not the product of a favorable stretch of matchups.
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What makes it more impressive is the offense he did it in. Green Bay typically spreads the football around, and Kraft was the lone exception to that pattern. He earned an 18.8% target share, which has meaningful room to grow. He was also targeted on 23% of his routes run, which ranked eighth at the position.
Both of those figures could climb a few percentage points this season, provided he gets fully healthy.
So far, the reports have been overwhelmingly positive. At this point, we should expect Kraft to be ready for Week 1, which is a very different situation than most players returning from this injury.
The one wrinkle is his own comments to reporters that the team plans to monitor his usage through the first half of the season. That would normally be a red flag for a player at this price.
I find myself largely unconcerned, though. Even if Kraft is playing fewer snaps, I expect he will be running routes when he is out there and used primarily in passing situations early on. That is the ideal way for a tight end to be limited. A player who sits out running downs and plays on obvious passing downs can still command targets at a high rate.
That is why I think he can produce top-five tight end numbers even on a restricted snap count. Then, once we reach the most important weeks of the fantasy season, Green Bay should unleash him entirely. Getting a potential positional difference maker down the stretch is exactly what you want from a mid-round pick.
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Kraft is my TE6 and the TE6 by ADP, so the market has him properly placed. I generally want to grab a tight end within the first eight or so rounds, and Kraft fits that window perfectly.
If he falls to me, I am happy making him my TE1.
Katz’s TE Fantasy Rankings 2026
Brock Bowers | LV
Trey McBride | ARI
Colston Loveland | CHI
Tyler Warren | IND
Tucker Kraft | GB
Sam LaPorta | DET
George Kittle | SF
Harold Fannin Jr. | CLE
Kyle Pitts Sr. | ATL
Isaiah Likely | NYG
Travis Kelce | KC
Dallas Goedert | PHI
Jake Ferguson | DAL
Mark Andrews | BAL
Juwan Johnson | NO
Dalton Kincaid | BUF
Chig Okonkwo | WAS
Brenton Strange | JAX
Hunter Henry | NE
Kenyon Sadiq | NYJ
Dalton Schultz | HOU
Greg Dulcich | MIA
AJ Barner | SEA
T.J. Hockenson | MIN
Oronde Gadsden II | LAC
Terrance Ferguson | LAR
Gunnar Helm | TEN
Evan Engram | DEN
Cade Otton | TB
Colby Parkinson | LAR
This article originally appeared on Pro Football Network .
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