Every year, the NFL Top 100 list sparks debate. Players, coaches, media members, and fans all have their own opinions about who is ranked too high, too low, or left off entirely. The 2026 edition is no different, but one omission stands above the rest: Green Bay Packers tight end Tucker Kraft.
Some might regard the list as nothing more than a popularity contest. Still, players’ careers need to receive that type of recognition. Kraft was not merely overlooked. He was arguably the league’s most obvious top-100 snub after a breakout 2025 campaign that established him as one of the NFL’s premier young tight ends.
Before a late-season ACL injury ended his year prematurely, Kraft was producing at an elite level. Through seven games, he led all NFL tight ends in receiving yards (469), averaged 15.6 yards per reception, and was tied for the position lead with six touchdown catches. His impact went beyond traditional receiving numbers. He was one of the most dangerous yards-after-catch threats in football, averaging 11.2 yards after the catch per reception, a figure that dwarfed the rest of the position.
Those numbers were not the product of a small-sample fluke. Kraft had become a central piece of Green Bay’s offense and was on pace for more than 1,100 receiving yards and 15 touchdowns before suffering the injury. He thought he was on pace for something special.
“I would say I felt like I was on the cusp of putting together one of the greatest seasons by a Packer tight end,” Kraft said after the season, “and that was something I was looking forward to was just leaving my legacy on this game and playing as hard as I could every snap for this team.”
That kind of production and ascension should have made a Top 100 appearance a formality. Instead, Kraft was left off the list entirely, likely due to his injury.
Kraft’s omission becomes even harder to explain when considering how his peers view him. Multiple recent rankings have placed Kraft comfortably inside the NFL’s top tier of tight ends. Yahoo Sports had him ranked sixth among all NFL tight ends entering 2026, behind only Brock Bowers, Trey McBride, George Kittle, Sam LaPorta, and Tyler Warren. Only Travis Kelce, 36, has been named to the list, with Bowers, McBride, and Kittle likely to follow.
When a player is widely considered a top-six performer at his position, leaving him outside the top 100 players in the entire league is difficult to justify.
The timing of Kraft’s injury is the most likely explanation. Players vote on the NFL Top 100, and injuries often create a recency bias. Kraft missed the latter portion of the season, which likely reduced his visibility during the voting process. The list has long been criticized for favoring name recognition and late-season momentum over full-season impact. Even former players have questioned how representative the voting process truly is.
But if the list is meant to recognize the league’s best players, availability alone shouldn’t erase what Kraft accomplished before getting hurt.
Consider the players who made the back half of the list. Many had solid seasons, but few demonstrated the kind of game-changing efficiency that Kraft displayed. He was catching passes and turning routine completions into explosive plays. Green Bay’s offense looked noticeably different when he was healthy. Defenses had to account for him down the seam, in the red zone, and after the catch. That versatility is what separates good tight ends from elite ones.
The Packers have not had a 1,000-yard receiver since Davante Adams in 2021, and Kraft was on track to become the first player to break that drought. His emergence also provided quarterback Jordan Love with a reliable mismatch weapon at a critical stage of the offense’s development.
What makes the snub even more notable is that analysts across the league recognized Kraft’s breakout. CBS Sports described him as “one of the NFL’s true breakouts” of the 2025 season.
Fans and analysts on social media repeatedly mentioned him as one of the players who deserved a Top 100 debut. Discussions about the list frequently cited him as a glaring omission.
In Green Bay, the reaction has been predictable. Packers fans have grown accustomed to seeing their players undervalued in national rankings, and Kraft’s exclusion has become another example of that perceived disrespect. Whether you agree with that broader sentiment or not, this particular case has substantial evidence behind it.
A healthy Kraft entering 2026 should have plenty of motivation to make up for lost time last season. He may (or may not) have a new contract in hand, and apparently, he needs to continue proving he is a top tight end in this league. If Kraft returns to the form he showed before the injury, he will force his way onto next year’s list and could climb far beyond the bottom third of the rankings. Few tight ends in football possess his combination of size, speed, physicality, and run-after-catch ability.
As of this writing, the Packers have only three players named to the list: Josh Jacobs, Jordan Love, and Xavier McKinney, with Micah Parsons still to come. Ultimately, every top-100 list will have controversial omissions. But controversy usually exists in shades of gray. Kraft’s absence feels different. A player who led all tight ends in receiving yards through seven games, was on pace for more than 1,100 yards and 15 touchdowns, and is now viewed as a top-six tight end in the NFL should not have been left off entirely.
For the Packers, the snub may become fuel for a breakout encore. For the rest of the league, it serves as a reminder that sometimes the biggest mistake on the Top 100 list is not where a player is ranked – it’s when he is not ranked at all.
