{"id":12572,"date":"2025-10-23T15:38:09","date_gmt":"2025-10-23T15:38:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/12572\/"},"modified":"2025-10-23T15:38:09","modified_gmt":"2025-10-23T15:38:09","slug":"pittsburgh-is-the-perfect-place-for-tucker-kraft-to-continue-his-hot-streak","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/12572\/","title":{"rendered":"Pittsburgh Is the Perfect Place For Tucker Kraft To Continue His Hot Streak"},"content":{"rendered":"

Christian Watson<\/a> could return on Sunday night against the Pittsburgh Steelers. Jayden Reed<\/a> will be back sometime later in the season. Josh Jacobs<\/a> always needs his carries, and rightfully so. Rookie Matthew Golden<\/a> has earned his own role in the offense.<\/p>\n

All these players are critical to the Green Bay offense, but perhaps none more so than tight end Tucker Kraft<\/a>. His role shouldn\u2019t fade as more starters return to the lineup. It can\u2019t. Sunday night against Pittsburgh will provide another advantageous spot.<\/p>\n

When Green Bay was in a gotta-have-it moment on Sunday against the Arizona Cardinals, Jordan Love<\/a> targeted Kraft. The Packers were facing a fourth-and-two down three with less than three minutes to go. Love looked to Kraft, who made a catch on the far sideline and toe-tapped his way inbounds to move the sticks.<\/p>\n

Kraft finished the game against the Cardinals with five catches for 58 yards and a touchdown. He had a team-high 10 targets and scored the only receiving touchdown on the day. Kraft helped pave the way, providing running lanes for Jacobs and Emanuel Wilson<\/a>.<\/p>\n

He has become an all-around tight end who is ascending to become one of the most complete players at his position in the NFL. In an offense where head coach Matt LaFleur has continually said they will always spread it around, Kraft warrants more than a couple of looks each week. In fact, he\u2019s making a case that he should become a focal point.<\/p>\n

Kraft has a touchdown in four of six games this year. Alongside Romeo Doubs<\/a>, he\u2019s the go-to guy in the red zone for Love.<\/p>\n

The third-year tight end out of South Dakota State played for the Jackrabbits in college, but plays more like a bull. He has 23 receptions this year, 15 of which have gone for first downs. Kraft\u2019s game continues to improve in an offense that doesn\u2019t have a true superstar in the passing game.<\/p>\n

With the Pittsburgh Steelers up next on the schedule, expect much of the same from Kraft. It\u2019s a Steelers defense that, per The Football Database<\/a>, allows the third-most fantasy points on average to the tight end position.<\/p>\n

Last Thursday night, the Cincinnati Bengals\u2019 tight end Noah Fant<\/a> had 44 yards receiving and a touchdown against Pittsburgh\u2019s defense. It doesn\u2019t sound like much until you consider it was the most receiving yards in a game this year for Fant, not to mention his first touchdown since Week 1.<\/p>\n

The week before against the Cleveland Browns, rookie tight end Harold Fannin<\/a> Jr. led the Browns with 81 receiving yards on seven receptions. It was the most yards in a game this year for Fannin, and his seven receptions tied a career high.<\/p>\n

This isn\u2019t a recent trend for Pittsburgh. You can go back to Week 3 when New England Patriots tight end Hunter Henry<\/a> had eight receptions for 90 yards and two touchdowns. The receptions, yards, and two touchdowns were all team-highs for the Patriots in that game and season-high marks for Henry. The veteran tight end saw 11 targets in total that day. Nobody else for the Patriots had more than five.<\/p>\n

Time and again, opposing tight ends have burned Pittsburgh this year. Kraft will enter the scene riding high after another noteworthy game against Arizona, one where Green Bay looked his way on a must-have fourth-down play.<\/p>\n

After the game, LaFleur said<\/a> Green Bay had two calls for that fourth down: one for man coverage and one for zone coverage. Unfortunately, the Packers weren\u2019t able to identify that it was a zone look until the play clock had melted down, so Love snapped it, having called their play for a man-coverage look.<\/p>\n

LaFleur explained:<\/p>\n

So it was just one of those deals where I was like, \u201cNo matter what we call, this guy\u2019s gonna make it work.\u201d That\u2019s exactly what happened because we had a play called for one versus man and one versus zone. Didn\u2019t necessarily get the play that we wanted, but it doesn\u2019t matter. Sometimes, when you have guys that have confidence in what they\u2019re doing, and Tuck did a hell of a job winning on the route. Our O-line protected, and Jordan gave him a chance. That\u2019s exactly what it took.<\/p>\n

Kraft was the primary read and got just enough space from a safety lurking near him to make the play and move the sticks.<\/p>\n

Coaches don\u2019t draw up plays in those spots for just anyone. They go to the ones they trust. All of that came together for a tight end who continues to show he should get more looks. Really, there\u2019s no limit to the targets he\u2019s earned.<\/p>\n

Kraft has burst onto the scene as one of the best young tight ends in the NFL. The quarterback will always be the most important player. And while the Packers have a bell cow back in Jacobs, it\u2019s fair to at least ask if Kraft is the most critical piece of the offense.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s been that good, consistently, in the passing game and as a run blocker. Kraft is as complete as they come at the position. Sunday night will provide another great matchup and opportunity on a national stage.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Christian Watson could return on Sunday night against the Pittsburgh Steelers. Jayden Reed will be back sometime later…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":12573,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[4917,1418,73,75,74,9744],"class_list":["post-12572","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pittsburgh","tag-green-bay-packers","tag-nfl","tag-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh-headlines","tag-pittsburgh-news","tag-tucker-kraft"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12572","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12572"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12572\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12573"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12572"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12572"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12572"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}