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Tucker Kraft injury update: Packers TE hopeful to return from torn ACL in September

Brian Jones Profile Picby: Brian Jones01/13/26brianjones_93

Green Bay Packers tight end Tucker Kraft hopes that he will be 100 percent healthy when the 2026 NFL season kicks off. While speaking to reporters on Monday, Kraft said he wants to be fully recovered from his torn ACL in September.

“Hopefully bulletproof by then,” Kraft said, via Pete Dougherty of the Green Bay Press-Gazette (via Myles Simmons of Pro Football Talk). “So I already feel pretty good. My progress so far has been great. Some would say even ahead of schedule. So, not trying to blow anything out of proportion. I’m only not even 10 weeks in yet, but it’s feeling good so far.”

Tucker Kraft suffered the injury during the Packers’ Week 9 matchup against the Carolina Panthers. He was in the middle of having a Pro Bowl-type season, catching 32 passes for 489 yards and six touchdowns through eight games.

After showing what he can do in 2025, Kraft is ready to take his game to the next level. “I was able to prove time and time again what I could do with three catches, four catches, five catches,” Kraft said, “showing, like in that Pittsburgh game, I had 140-something yards, with like 90 percent of that coming from the yards after the catch.

Tucker Kraft believes he’s the ‘full package’

“So now, coming off my injury, putting myself in position to get better at things like I was – I was really feeling my man separation coming along – getting the same reps and not making the same mistakes, but continuing to improve upon each opportunity. So that moving forward, I do feel like as a tight end, I am the full package, and that I can be anything for this team, just put the ball in my hands.”

The Packers selected Kraft in the third round of the 2023 NFL Draft. During his rookie season, the former South Dakota State star caught 31 passes for 355 yards and two touchdowns in 17 games with eight starts. In 2024, Kraft caught 50 passes for 707 yards and seven TDs in 17 starts.

At the time of Kraft’s injury, the Packers had a 5-2-1 record. The team finished the regular season at 9-7-1 and lost to the Chicago Bears in the wild-card round of the playoffs.