Tucker Kraft

Pos: TE

School: South Dakota State

Ht. 6’5″ 

Wt. 254

Games Watched: Illinois State, Northern Iowa, North Dakota State

One Liner: Versatile tight end who wins with blocking, hands, and ball skills

Strengths: 

  • Very good blocking. Kraft is a willing blocker who takes solid angles when he is in space and when he blocks in line. He has the strength and some technical refinement to seal off his blocks as well to create just enough time for either the ball carrier or the QB. 
  • Very good hands. Kraft has good hands, and while he had some concentration drops at times, he shows the ability to haul in passes from all over his catch radius, providing high upside as a receiving threat to go along with his blocking prowess.
  • Very good football IQ. Kraft was adept at finding open holes in zone defenses, and worked effectively as a zone beater throughout the season for the Jackrabbits. 
  • Good ball skills. Kraft flashes high quality ball skills to go up and compete for the football at the catch point. He has a nice, well built frame that allows him to snatch the ball out of the air with his catch radius. 

Weaknesses:

  • Adequate athleticism. Kraft’s athleticism won’t blow anyone away, and he isn’t known for being particularly shifty or twitchy with the ball in his hands when he is in space. 
  • Adequate route running. Kraft’s route running nuance will have to improve in order for him to be a consistent separator out of press or man looks from the slot. His route running primary relies upon finding open holes against zones but he will need to develop another way of finding space and separating against man looks.

Overall Assessment: Tucker Kraft is a versatile tight end who already displayed blocking prowess in college. He takes good angles and has solid hand placement as a blocker, and has the build and functional strength to translate some of these skills to the next level. Kraft has good hands, and I do not believe that the drop issues that he had in college will necessarily translate to the pros. Kraft made a lot of plays happen by simply finding open holes in the zone and using his football IQ to identify soft spots in coverage shells. I also would trust Kraft to make 50/50 catches in jump ball situations due to his frame and catch radius. However, Kraft is a bit limited athletically, and won’t really win with much twitch, leaving some questions about how well he can separate at the next level. 

Scheme Fit: In line blocking tight end that can run delay routes in play action or a reliable zone beater over the middle.

Pick Projection: Day 2

Grade: 6.37