The Green Bay Packers will face the New Orleans Saints in Week 16. Here’s the latest fantasy football news and advice to help you with your lineups this week and moving forward, especially regarding TE Tucker Kraft.
Is Tucker Kraft Playing in Week 16?
Kraft is not listed on the injury report this week, so barring any setbacks, he is on track to play this weekend.
We’ll continue to monitor the Packers’ injury report. You can also visit and bookmark our NFL Injury Tracker and Fantasy News Tracker for the latest updates.
Should You Start or Sit Tucker Kraft in Week 16?
Kraft fell short of expectations last weekend (5.4 PPR points), but the process remains sound. He’s not part of the must-start tier at the position, but he’s in the mix for TE8 behind those locked-in seven – and it has very little to do with what he offers as a player.
- Kraft ranks fourth at the position in percentage of team snaps played (86%)
- The Packers have scored 30+ points in four straight games
That Green Bay streak is the second longest in franchise history (who can forget the seven games of 1963?), and those two traits are enough to land you, with confidence, inside my top-12 at a position that lacks consistency.
For his career, Kraft has caught 75% of the passes directed his way. With 12.6 yards per catch, those targets result in fantasy production. The Saints own the third-worst goal-to-go defense through 15 weeks, and should the Pack find themselves on the doorstep, it’s easy to envision a situation in which the road team backs the line of scrimmage to stop Josh Jacobs.
I’m not banking on a bail-out short touchdown, but the path is there given the role and scoring environment. I think you can feel good about plugging in Kraft and taking your chances.
Are you looking for start/sit advice for other players in your lineup? Read our Week 16 Fantasy Start-Sit Advice Cheat Sheet for every fantasy-relevant player in every game.
Tucker Kraft’s Fantasy Points Projection in Week 16
As of Sunday morning, Kraft is projected to score 10.2 fantasy points in PPR formats. This includes 3.3 receptions for 41.7 yards and 0.5 touchdowns.
Check out the free PFN Fantasy Start-Sit Optimizer for the latest projections and advice for your lineups this week.
PFN Insight on the Saints' Defense
Although the New Orleans Saints had an ugly season across the board before Dennis Allen's firing, the defense stood out as an issue. Allen was the former DC under Sean Payton, and when his defense ranked well below its sixth-place finish from last year (and 13th in 2022), the writing was on the wall.
Since Allen's firing, the performances have been all over the place. New Orleans has alternated top-six weeks with bottom-15 performances, and Sunday vs. the Commanders was time for the bad version to appear.
The Saints posted a 75.3 (C) grade, ranking 18th on the week.
It's nearly impossible to post a below-average grade like that when the pass rush excels to the degree the Saints did on Sunday. New Orleans recorded eight sacks, double its total in any other game this season and one shy of the most by any team this year. Beyond the sacks, they also posted the sixth-highest non-blitz pressure rate (44.7%) on the week.
However, the Saints' run defense continued to flail, ranking 21st in success rate (60%) and 20th in EPA per play (0.10) for the week. That's actually a massive improvement from the typical New Orleans run defense, which ranks 30th in success rate and 29th in EPA per rush for the season.
Ultimately, that places a pretty firm cap on the Saints' defensive ceiling, particularly given that the offense isn't strong enough to force defenses to play from behind and abandon the run.
For more insight on all other team defenses, head to our PFN Defense+ Metric Analysis.
Tucker Kraft’s Fantasy Ranking
Our Weekly Consensus PPR Rankings are below — both positional and overall. They were last updated at 6:05 AM ET on Sunday, December 22. If you're in a Superflex league, make sure you check out our Weekly Consensus Superflex Rankings.
Week 16 TE PPR Rankings
1) Brock Bowers | LV (vs. JAX)
2) Trey McBride | ARI (at CAR)
3) George Kittle | SF (at MIA)
4) Jonnu Smith | MIA (vs. SF)
5) David Njoku | CLE (at CIN)
6) T.J. Hockenson | MIN (at SEA)
7) Travis Kelce | KC (vs. HOU)
8) Mark Andrews | BAL (vs. PIT)
9) Sam LaPorta | DET (at CHI)
10) Dalton Kincaid | BUF (vs. NE)
11) Tucker Kraft | GB (vs. NO)
12) Hunter Henry | NE (at BUF)
13) Brenton Strange | JAX (at LV)
14) Pat Freiermuth | PIT (at BAL)
15) Jake Ferguson | DAL (vs. TB)
16) Dalton Schultz | HOU (at KC)
17) Juwan Johnson | NO (at GB)
18) Kyle Pitts | ATL (vs. NYG)
19) Stone Smartt | LAC (vs. DEN)
20) Cole Kmet | CHI (vs. DET)
21) Grant Calcaterra | PHI (at WAS)
22) Noah Gray | KC (vs. HOU)
23) Chigoziem Okonkwo | TEN (at IND)
24) Isaiah Likely | BAL (vs. PIT)
25) Noah Fant | SEA (vs. MIN)
26) Ja'Tavion Sanders | CAR (vs. ARI)
27) Mike Gesicki | CIN (vs. CLE)
28) Tyler Conklin | NYJ (vs. LAR)
29) Jordan Akins | CLE (at CIN)
30) Tyler Higbee | LAR (at NYJ)
31) Michael Mayer | LV (vs. JAX)
32) Zach Ertz | WAS (vs. PHI)
33) Austin Hooper | NE (at BUF)
34) Dawson Knox | BUF (vs. NE)
35) Foster Moreau | NO (at GB)
36) Luke Schoonmaker | DAL (vs. TB)
37) Daniel Bellinger | NYG (at ATL)
Saints at Packers Trends and Insights
New Orleans Saints
Team: The Saints, the same team that opened the season by scoring 47 points against the Panthers, have scored 47 points since their Week 12 bye.
QB: New Orleans had the hot start – since Week 3, they rank 24th in yards per pass, 26th in pass touchdown rate, and 30th in completion percentage.
Offense: On Sunday, Alvin Kamara joined Lenny Moore, Marshall Faulk, and Christian McCaffrey as the only players with 25 receiving touchdowns and 50 rush touchdowns.
Defense: Despite posting their fourth-lowest blitz rate of the season on Sunday (13.3%), the Saints recorded their highest sack rate of 2024 (20.5%).
Fantasy: Kamara’s last run gaining more than 30 yards came during his six-touchdown effort against the Vikings on Christmas Day of 2020.
Betting: Unders are 15-1 in New Orleans’ last 16 games played on extended rest, going under by an average of 7.1 points)
Green Bay Packers
Team: As of Tuesday, we are more than 365 days removed from Green Bay’s last regular-season loss in the United States against a non-NFC North team.
QB: Jordan Love was intercepted three times when blitzed in his first three games this season – he’s been picked off on such a pass just twice since.
Offense: On Sunday night, the Packers had four first-half possessions — 15 first downs, 235 yards, and four scoring drives (20 points).
Defense: Matchup-based defense. Over the past three weeks, Green Bay has two sub-10% games (Week 13 vs. Miami and Sunday in Seattle) and a plus-30% game (32.6% in Detroit, easily their highest mark of the season)
Fantasy: Josh Jacobs had nine touches in the first six minutes on Sunday night, tying him for the most such touches in a game during the 2000s (others: Chris Ivory in Week 4, 2014, and Peyton Barber in Week 17, 2017).
Betting: The Packers failed to cover four straight games in the middle of the season (Weeks 7-11) but haven’t failed to cover a game since (3-0-1).