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By Tyler Everett
Sports Betting Editor
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Let's get right into the best Washington Commanders vs. Green Bay Packers player props as these teams meet in a must-see Week 2 Thursday Night Football matchup.
For Green Bay, we're bullish on a big night by promising third-year tight end Tucker Kraft.
On the Commanders side, 29-year-old Deebo Samuel was a focal point vs. the Giants in Week 1 in his Commanders debut, with 7 receptions for 77 yards on 10 targets, plus one carry for 19 yards and a TD.
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Tucker Kraft o3.5 Rec. (-112 at FanDuel) -- 1 unit
The third-year Green Bay tight end found the end zone on an early 15-yard TD grab, but he was otherwise quiet in Green Bay's big win over the Lions last Sunday. In fact, his only other catch in that game went for just 1 yard, giving him a grand total of 2 receptions for 16 yards and a TD to kick off his 2025 season.
But on a remarkably low-volume day for the Green Bay offense as a whole, Kraft's role was actually encouraging.
Keep in mind that Jordan Love attempted just 22 passes, as the Green Bay offense was only on the field for 47 snaps. League-wide, only the Dolphins (46 snaps in their 33-8 loss to the Colts), ran fewer plays than the Packers.
With a comfortable second-half lead, Green Bay leaned on its ground game. Love threw the ball just six times after halftime, including once in the fourth quarter.
If Thursday's game follows a similar script, then (obviously) Kraft and everyone else in the Packers' passing game might fail to do much damage.
But the fact that Kraft's four targets were tied with Romeo Doubs for second-most on the team, behind only Jayden Reed, shows that he was as involved as anyone.
His target rate of over 18 percent of Love's attempts also bodes well for Thursday night, especially if this game between the No. 8 (GB) and No. 5 (WAS) scoring offenses in the league last year ends up being a shootout.
Assuming Love -- who averaged 29.5 pass attempts per game in the 14 games he started and finished in 2024, with at least 28 attempts in 8/14 games -- has to take more shots in this game, that should mean a ton of opportunities for Kraft.
Even if we assume Kraft will need at least 5 or 6 targets to reach 4 receptions tonight, his targets and receptions numbers over his last eight games (from Week 13 of 2024 through the playoff loss to Philly, plus Week 1 of 2025) tell us that's well within reach:
Tucker Kraft Targets, Catches, Yards Over Last 8 Games
While he's only recorded 4 receptions or more in three of his last eight games, the fact he's drawn at least four targets in six of his last eight games (including five or more in 4/8) is encouraging.
Throw in the fact that wide receivers Dontayvion Wicks and Jayden Reed were limited in practice this week, and Kraft to reach 4 receptions becomes impossible to resist.
One last thing (I swear) before we move on: in the Commanders' last six games of 2024 (Weeks 16-18, plus all three playoff games), opposing tight ends Sam LaPorta for the Lions (6 catches for 51 yards and a touchdown on 7 targets in the NFC Divisional Round) and Dallas Goedert for the Eagles (7 catches for 85 yards on 8 targets in the NFC Championship Game) put up big numbers against the Washington D.
The Commanders also gave up four receptions for 44 yards and 1 TD to Atlanta's Kyle Pitts and a combined 6 catches for 51 yards to the Saints' Foster Moreau and Juwan Johnson.
Deebo Samuel o4.5 Rec. (-118 at FanDuel) -- 1 unit
Between the fifth-rounder they traded to San Francisco to acquire him and the $17M guaranteed salary -- plus up to $3M in additional incentives -- they're paying him in 2025, the Commanders invested so much in Samuel this offseason that it was only logical for him to play a massive role in Week 1.
Sure enough, Samuel easily led Washington in targets, with 10, in the Week 1 win over the Giants. His seven catches were twice as many as the number of catches tallied by the next-leading Washington receiver.
His success on his only carry, a 19-yard touchdown run, also bodes well for his future involvement in Washington.
But there's another reason to like Samuel to get at least five catches tonight, and it's actually the Green Bay pass rush (hear us out here).
Just like the Giants, now that the Packers have Micah Parsons, they're likely going to be able to get a ton of pressure on opposing quarterbacks -- just ask Jared Goff. One target whose importance against such defenses will be massive is Samuel, who has done a ton of damage on short routes and a variety of screen passes throughout his career.
His career yards per catch average of 14.3 shows that Samuel is more than just a magnet for targets at the line of scrimmage. At the same time, his consistently high catch percentage (65.6 for his career, 77 percent after one game as a Commander) speaks to how easy it is to feature him.
On the road at Lambeau, expect Commanders offensive coordinator Kliff Kingsbury to draw up a ton of quick-hitters to Samuel to keep Parsons and Co. off of Daniels, especially early.
In fact, I wouldn't be surprised to see Samuel cash this prop by halftime. Even if he gets less early volume than I'm projecting, it would be a surprise to see Samuel not finish this game with at least a handful of targets -- and more importantly, receptions.
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