• Tucker Kraft posts his career-best game: The Green Bay Packers tight end gained over 100 yards in the first game of his career, and received a higher target rate than usual for a second-straight game.
• Jacory Croskey-Merritt wasn’t given many opportunities: Croskey-Merritt didn’t see playing time until the Washington Commanders were already losing and passing to catch up.
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Estimated reading time: 5 minutes

PFF’s fantasy football recap focuses on player usage and stats, breaking down all the vital information you need to achieve fantasy success in 2025.

Monitor Jayden Reed’s health: Reed suffered a shoulder injury on the first drive and was ruled out during halftime.

The Packers generally used Romeo Doubs as their X receiver, while Matthew Golden and Dontayvion Wicks rotated as the Z receiver, and Reed played in the slot in three-receiver sets in Week 1. This was very similar to their wide receiver rotation last season, except with Golden replacing Christian Watson.

Green Bay continued that rotation to start this game until Reed left the game late in its first drive. This led to Golden, Wicks and Malik Heath. Each played notably more snaps in 11 personnel compared to last week. Wicks most directly replaced Reed, playing over half of his snaps from the slot. Golden also played slightly more slot snaps.

This didn’t lead to an increase in fantasy production by any of these receivers in this game. However, if Reed misses significant time, that would allow Golden and Wicks the opportunity to become fantasy-relevant. While fantasy managers probably shouldn’t start Golden yet, his fantasy value should increase a little bit. This could also make Wicks a waiver-wire target.

Tucker Kraft is living up to the hype: Kraft has seen an increase in target rate in each of the last two games.

Kraft had some of the best tight end statistics last season on a per-catch basis, looking at yards after the catch per catch, yards after contact per catch and avoided tackles per catch. For example, his 9.3 yards after the catch per catch were 2.7 yards higher than any other tight end with 50 or more targets. However, Kraft’s target rate was relatively low for a starting tight end. His 14.5% target rate was the fifth-lowest among the 28 tight ends with at least 300 routes run. This made him only a borderline fantasy starting tight end.

Packers coaches spent the offseason saying how they need to get Kraft the ball more often, and so far, the Packers have followed through with their words. He was targeted on 22.2% of his routes in Week 1, which was better than 15 of his 17 games from last season. That didn’t lead to much fantasy production because the Packers only threw the ball 22 times.

This week, his target rate wasn’t as high as last week but still better than last season, and he spent most of the game leading the Packers in targets. He caught six of them for 124 yards and a touchdown, including a 57-yard catch. This was the first 100-yard game of his career. Kraft is a must-start tight end this season, and he has the potential to finish the season among the top-five players at the position.

Monitor Austin Ekeler’s health: Ekeler suffered a non-contact Achilles injury in the fourth quarter. He was able to get off the field with help from the trainers and was carted from the sideline before the end of the game.

Ekeler played every snap on the first two drives over the last two weeks. Jacory Croskey-Merritt took over as the lead early-down back over the rest of the game. Ekeler continued to be the third-down back and two-minute drill back, while Jeremy McNichols took a few of those snaps from Ekeler. The Commanders were constantly playing from behind, so they primarily focused on passing the ball. Croskey-Merritt averaged 4.3 yards per carry despite not having a run for more than five yards.

McNichols took over as the passing-down back for the last five minutes of the game after Ekeler’s injury. If Ekeler misses time, we can expect McNichols to be the primary beneficiary, taking on third-down snaps and the two-minute drill. This should lead Crockey-Merritt to start games going forward and take snaps on the first two drives. Regardless of the injury, Croskey-Merritt should be in the RB2 conversation most weeks as long as the Commanders are winning games. A long-term Ekeler injury would make Croskey-Merritt a safer start in those games.

Miscellaneous notes

• Washington made Chris Rodriguez Jr. a healthy inactive for the second straight week, leaving the team with three running backs.
• The Commanders’ wide receiver rotation was similar to last week. The first exception is that Deebo Samuel didn’t play on the first drive for an unknown reason.
• The Commanders elevated Chris Moore from the practice squad last week, giving them six wide receivers. For this week, Moore remained on the practice squad, leaving them with five. This left everyone else playing slightly more.
• Zach Ertz’s snap rate was up this week, largely because the Commanders were playing from behind all night, leading to more 11 personnel.
• Josh Jacobs has played over 80% of the Packers‘ offensive snaps each of the first two weeks before garbage time. He accomplished this just once over all of last season. He’s been consistently on the field more often in all situations except for third downs.
• Packers backup tight end Ben Sims was a healthy inactive for a second straight week.

Table notes

• Snaps include plays called back due to penalties, including offensive holding or defensive pass interference. The other three stats have these plays removed.
• Targets may differ from official NFL sources. The most likely discrepancy would be from a clear thrown-away pass, where the NFL may give the target to the nearest receiver, while this data will not.
• Carries are only on designed plays. Quarterback scrambles won’t count for the total number of carries in the game.