The Packers made no secret about their desire to upgrade their playmakers this offseason. Any chance he got, Brian Gutekunst talked about a need for urgency at wide receiver, then ramped up that urgency by adding receivers with two of his first three picks in the 2025 NFL Draft.
If the group follows the same path as the safeties did last year, Gutekunst’s wide receiver fix should work. The corps should be better this year. Growth on offense can be achieved just by adding new pieces to the mix.
But
that’s not the only source for growth. The Packers can also improve internally, and while there’s some room for growth at receiver (namely, just holding onto the dang ball), the biggest growth opportunity is at tight end — specifically in the lanky frame of Luke Musgrave.
Musgrave has played so little through two seasons (just 18 of 34 regular season games) he enters this year as a virtual rookie, albeit one who has 41 career catches under his belt. Those catches were hard to come by last season. The Packers force-fed Musgrave the ball in his actual rookie year; he averaged 4.5 targets per game over the first 10 games of his career before a lacerated kidney essentially scuttled what remained of his 2023 campaign.
2024 was rough; there’s no two ways about it. He opened the year firmly behind ascendant Tucker Kraft on the depth chart and managed just five catches in four games before a torn ligament in his ankle sidelined him for more than two months. He made a late-season cameo appearance, but the damage was done. His second season was essentially lost.
Now, though, Musgrave is on the road to redemption. A strong start to training camp finally has him looking like the lightning to Kraft’s thunder. While Kraft rumbles through opposing defenses, Musgrave has the speed and length to be a vertical terror. He ran an excellent 4.61-second 40-yard dash at the 2023 scouting combine, making him the second-fastest tight end on the roster right now (Ben Sims is just a hair faster in the 40 dash at 4.59 seconds). You could see glimpses of his burst early last season, though the targets didn’t come.
They are now. In practice this week, Musgrave was on the receiving end of a pair of big completions, beating Carrington Valentine twice. Xavier McKinney described one of the plays as just a “good-(expletive) catch,” according to PackersNews.com.
Now, if the Packers want to lean into 12 personnel on offense, Musgrave is poised to be a perfect running mate for Kraft, just as Gutekunst and company envisioned in 2023. A lot of the league meta-game on offense is headed toward 12 personnel, but the Packers have lacked playmakers at tight end outside of Kraft. Musgrave’s arrival could open a new door for the Packers, adding a new avenue of growth on top of their offseason skill position acquisitions.
More from acmepackingcompany.com:
- Black and Blue News: This Week in the NFC North for July 6, 2014
- Cheese Curds: Green Bay Packers News and Links for July 7, 2014
- Packers 2013 Top Plays Recap: Top Ten Best Plays of the Year
- Packers Featured Heavily in NFL's Top 20 Games of 2013
- Packers' 2014 Roster Preview: Returning Quarterbacks
- Packers' 90-Man Roster Countdown: Players 5-1
