Tucker Kraft fantasy football insight from Hayden Winks - PPR Rankings

Kraft is a real-life top-5 when healthy. He tore his ACL (cleanly) in 2025 Week 9, which means a 9-month rehab puts him in line to return during training camp. While not guaranteed, it's more likely than not that Kraft is eligible to play in Week 1, even if at less than 100%. Coach Mike LaFleur said his rehab is "right on schedule" right now. Promising. Before his injury last year, Kraft was PPR's TE1 overall on TE8 usage. In my half PPR fantasy points over replacement metric, Kraft was 26th overall on a per-game basis. Incredible! He had two 20+ outings on the backs of wild explosive plays. His athleticism for a 6'5"/259 tight end is rare, and the Packers will keep featuring him on play-action shots. That's a guarantee. Kraft is a negative regression candidate, however. He easily led the position with a +0.91 EPA per target. It's nearly impossible to average 11.4 yards per target on a 4.5 average depth of target. Even the best TEs in the NFL with that low of an aDOT typically can only hold an 8.5-9.5 YPT, and that's without a brace on their knee. If we regress his yards back to a normal level, Kraft looks more like the TE4 on TE8 usage. That's still solid when his Underdog ADP is at 87th overall. It really just comes down to how elite can he be coming off injury because the volume in a balanced, scripted offense is unlikely to reach the McBride, Bowers, and Loveland tier. He is best in half PPR best ball when we don't have to predict when he's going to launch a 40-yard TD by outrunning the defense.