Fantasy Football Player Notes

Last year, before losing the rest of his season to a torn ACL (Week 9), Tucker Kraft was the TE1 in fantasy points per game. In Weeks 1-8, among 33 qualifying tight ends, Kraft ranked seventh in target share (18.3%), first in receiving yards per game (67), second in yards per route run (2.71), seventh in first-read share (21.6%), and second in first downs per route run (0.121, per Fantasy Points Data). Kraft was also a YAC gawd, leading all tight ends in yards after the catch per reception and missed tackles forced per reception. The news out of Packers' camp is that he'll have his snaps monitored for half the season before cutting him loose with a full workload down the back half of the season. I'm not that concerned about it crushing his fantasy value in the early going. In Weeks 1-8, among 45 qualifying tight ends, he was 11th in route share (73.3%), which will obviously see a downtick this season out of the gate, but now we can discuss the reassuring factors of his usage from last season. Among the same sample of tight ends in that stretch, he was also ninth-best in target per route run rate (23%) and third-best in designed target rate (17.9%). I won't be shocked if Green Bay bumps both of those numbers up in the first half of the season, and to be honest, I expect them to. Kraft can maintain TE1 production in the early weeks of the season with top 3-5 upside in the back half of 2026.