The news everyone had been hoping wouldn’t be confirmed was, alas, confirmed on Monday. Green Bay Packers tight end Tucker Kraft suffered a torn ACL in Sunday’s loss to the Carolina Panthers and will miss the rest of the year.
As a result, Green Bay’s offense will significantly change without Kraft in the lineup for the duration of the season. One other thing is apparent: The Packers won’t be able to simply replace Kraft.
Kraft’s fingerprints are all over Matt LaFleur’s offense in so many different ways. Let’s start with 12-personnel.
Entering this week against Carolina, the Packers ran 12-personnel on nearly 38% of their offensive snaps, ranking in the top five in the league. Kraft afforded them the luxury of doing so.
Without him, Green Bay still has Luke Musgrave, who will need to step up in a big way. But they will likely move entirely away from 12-personnel.
Using Musgrave and John FitzPatrick in a lot of 12-personnel puts two players on the field who each do one different thing well. FitzPatrick is a fine blocker but doesn’t offer much as a receiving tight end. On the other hand, Musgrave was drafted in the second round in 2023 to be a vertical threat in this offense. However, his blocking is nowhere near Kraft’s level.
Putting two players on the field at once to essentially equal one missing tight end won’t do Green Bay much good. Trying to bash their head into the wall by sticking with 12-personnel just because it’s been a big part of the offense with Kraft won’t work either. LaFleur and the rest of the offense will have to adjust in different ways.
Kraft was also emerging as not only one of the better young tight ends in the league, but one of the better tight ends, period. In the lead-up to Sunday’s contest, he was on pace to shatter Packers franchise records for a tight end.
Jermichael Finley has the most receptions of any Packers tight end in a season in team history with 61. Kraft was on pace for right around 73. Paul Coffman has the team record for receiving yards in a season by a tight end with 814. Kraft was on pace for over 1,100. Coffman and Robert Tonyan have the most receiving touchdowns in franchise history by a tight end in one season, with 11 apiece. Kraft was on pace for 14.
On top of all that, Kraft had an offensive usage rate of 19%. In a unit built around spreading the ball around and not needing an alpha in the passing game, Kraft was becoming a No. 1 receiver anyway. This isn’t simply just, Oh, it’s time for Luke Musgrave to step up. Green Bay can’t replicate what Kraft meant for this offense.
Right tackle Zach Tom did a good job summing up the total impact Kraft has all over the offense after the game.
I mean (shoot) anywhere on the field. He’s obviously a big part of our offense – run game, pass game. So not having him out there definitely was a blow to us (but) just gotta move on and recover from it. Obviously, I feel for him but we still gotta be able to execute.
Execute, they could not, at least on Sunday against Carolina. The red-zone woes were significant with Kraft off the field.
Kraft’s impact also traveled well off the field. Green Bay’s star tight end was one of seven players elected as a team captain for the season. Comb through any Packers social media account, and you’ll see clips of Kraft in the locker room firing up teammates, videos of him mic’d up for a game, energizing the sideline, and a hell of a lot more.
An emotional Josh Jacobs voiced what will be missing with Kraft done for the year.
I know who he is for this team and what he means for this team. That’s a heavy blow for us. A lot of guys even in the locker room and even the huddle afterwards, we felt that. He’s a leader on this team. He’s a captain and he’s one of those guys that you really love to have on your team.
Losing Kraft the football player on the field is a huge gut punch for the Packers. Outside of quarterback Jordan Love, you could easily make the case that, given Kraft’s all-around excellence as a pass catcher and run blocker, there was nobody more essential to the operation on offense.
If you’re the Packers, you have to switch things up on offense and hope that there’s enough still left to right the ship. Given the investment at wide receiver in recent drafts, there could still be enough. Replacing Kraft the leader is also a devastating hit to absorb. Getting past this will take a complete team effort, and a consistent one at that.
You can’t replace Tucker Kraft. You hope you still have enough pieces around to make a run into the postseason and through it without him. We’ll find out if Green Bay has that.