8 games, 32 receptions, 489 yards, and six touchdowns.
That will be the final statistics on Tucker Kraft’s 2025 season. On Sunday, the Green Bay Packers’ budding star tight end suffered a knee injury that
knocked him out of the team’s game against the Carolina Panthers, and the extent of that injury was confirmed on Monday morning with an MRI.
According to a report from Ian Rapoport of NFL Network, the injury is indeed a torn ACL and Kraft will be out for the season.
Heading into Sunday’s game, Kraft was leading the Packers in receptions (30), receiving yards (469), and receiving touchdowns (6), ahead of second-place Romeo Doubs in all three categories. Kraft also leads the team by a wide margin in yards after the catch with 344; among wide receivers and tight ends, no other Packer has yet reached triple digits. Additionally, Jordan Love has posted a near-perfect passer rating when targeting Kraft, posting a 148.6 mark when throwing to the big tight end.
If last season was Kraft’s breakout, 2025 was setting up to be a statement year that he was establishing himself as one of the top all-around tight ends in the NFL. Now he will spend the rest of the season rehabilitating his injured knee with the intent of being ready to roll in Week 1 of the 2026 season.
The Green Bay Packers have three other tight ends on their roster at the present time; Luke Musgrave and John FitzPatrick are on the 53-man roster, while Josh Whyle currently holds a spot on the practice squad. Expect the Packers to place Kraft on injured reserve shortly and promote Whyle, a 6-foot-7, 248-pound former 5th-round draft pick, to the active roster. Meanwhile, the NFL’s trade deadline approaches on Tuesday, and this could also push the Packers into the market for another tight end.
Somehow, the Packers coaching staff must now find a way to simulate the myriad contributions that Kraft has brought to this offense over the past few years. To make matters worse, the last few weeks have seen the team team playing without two key receiving weapons in Jayden Reed and Dontayvion Wicks, while first-round draft pick Matthew Golden also left Sunday’s game with a shoulder injury and did not return.
