I was originally going to get up a 53-man roster projection for Thursday morning (stay tuned for that tomorrow), but while doing the exercise, I realized that I was doing a lot of work trying to figure out when guys were expected to return from injury after the chaos that happened at the end of last season. So instead of a Green Bay Packers roster projection, let’s talk about the team’s notable injuries going into 2026 and the timelines that we can expect from these players.
Here is my disclaimer
that I am in no way a doctor, nor have I ever had any experience in injury recovery, other than tearing my knee up twice. Here is all of my “expert” knowledge: Tearing your knee up sucks; Don’t do it. I will be leaning on the knowledge of others.
Tucker Kraft, TE
We’re going to have to make some assumptions here. For the ACL tears, I want to work with the Christian Watson timeline, since it’s most recent example in the minds of Packers fans. As far as we know, the ACL injuries that Green Bay’s players have suffered are clean ACL tears.
Watson tore his ACL on January 5th, 2025. He returned to action on October 26th, 2025. This is fairly common, as clean ACL tears are considered to have around nine-ish-month recovery timelines for NFL players. Thank God for modern medicine. Watson’s return to game action took 294 days, about 9 months and 21 days.
Tucker Kraft tore his ACL on November 2nd, 2025. 294 days from that date is August 23rd, 2026, so he should be game-ready for the Packers at some point during training camp. For what it’s worth, Watson first practiced with Green Bay on October 6th, almost 9 months to the day from his ACL tear, so we can expect Kraft to return to the practice field some time in early August, even if he’s not working full-speed by then.
Micah Parsons, OLB
We’re going to work with the same Watson timeline assumptions here for Micah Parsons. Parsons tore his ACL on December 14th, 2025. Nine months from that day, the Watson return to practice timeline, will be mid-September.
The obstacle that Parsons will face is that mid-September is after the cutdown deadline, meaning that he’ll still be on the physically unable to perform list, but that players who start on the physically able to perform list in the regular season must miss the first four games of the season.
On paper, he should be good to go by Game 5 of the the Packers’ season. The issue is that he won’t have the same two-week ramp up of practice (when he’ll still be locked on the PUP list) before a game week like Watson had. Because of the mechanics of the PUP list, there’s a good chance that Parsons will be ready to start practicing with the team before he’s actually allowed to practice with the team, due to league rules. I’m sure Green Bay has some sort of plan for him in this regard, where they can simulate a practice with him individually, and that this won’t be coming to them as a surprise in September.
Zach Tom, RT
Zach Tom stated to the press after the season that he had a partially torn patellar tendon, and that after his surgery there will be a six-month recovery process. As long as he had the surgery by mid-February, he should also be able to be good to go for the regular season (I’m giving him some time on this injury timeline for a Watson-like ramp-up period before the regular season).
Devonte Wyatt, DE
Devonte Wyatt’s broken fibula and torn ankle ligaments will take three-to-five months to recover from, according to his post-season media availability. Based on that timeline, he should also be good to go by the regular season, and there’s a chance that he’s ready to go by minicamp in June. Minicamp should be happening right around the later end of his estimation.
Jordon Riley, DE
Jordon Riley tore his Achilles tendon, a pretty brutal injury. Generally, these injuries take at least nine months to recover from and could take up to a year. He had his injury on December 27th, 2025, so at minimum he shouldn’t be counted on to return to action until Game 5 (because of the PUP rules and the quickest end of the injury timeline projection) and might not play in 2026 at all, depending on the situation.
Kamal Hadden, CB
Tom Silverstein of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported that Kamal Hadden said after the season that the cornerback was told his ankle injury will take four to five months to recover from. On that timeline, Hadden could be ready to go by minicamp, too.
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This honestly wasn’t as bad of an outlook as I thought it would be. Devonte Wyatt and Kamal Hadden are in play to return around minicamp in mid-June. I wouldn’t be surprised if the team was a little conservative and waited a bit later for them to start ramping up, since games still won’t be played for several months.
Tucker Kraft and Zach Tom should start practicing with the Packers in August and be ready to go by Week 1. Micah Parsons, unless he’s some sort of medical marvel, will probably be ready by Game 5 of the season, depending on how much practice time the team believes that he needs before he’s able to contribute in games.
Along with Parsons, defensive lineman Jordon Riley will also probably start the season on the PUP list, too. At absolute best, Riley will return around the same time as Parsons, but I just would count on him hanging on the injury list until we’re told otherwise. When it’s Riley time, they’ll let us know he’s getting closer to returning to the field.
