GREEN BAY – Tucker Kraft wasn't being boastful, only truthful.
Speaking in the locker room Monday for the first time since losing his season to a torn ACL on Nov. 2 vs. Carolina, Kraft explained in straightforward fashion what he missed out on personally due to his injury.
"I was on the cusp of putting together one of the greatest seasons by a Packer tight end," he said. "That was something I was looking forward to, just leaving my legacy on this game and playing as hard as I could every snap for this team, because the end of the day, the guys in this room, they mean so much to me."
Kraft meant even more to the Packers' offense, as he caught 32 passes for 489 yards and six touchdowns in the season's first eight games. At the time he went down, he led the team in every category.
As for the history he was on pace to make, double his totals to 64 catches for 978 yards and 12 TDs over a full season and all those marks would've broken the franchise records for tight ends set by Jermichael Finley (61 catches in 2012) and Paul Coffman (814 yards, 11 TDs in 1983).
It's not hard to see him picking up where he left off in 2026 provided everything continues smoothly with his ACL rehab. Kraft isn't giving himself a timeline, but the good news is there were no complications with his surgery, despite some minor damage to the meniscus and LCL.
At this early stage he's thinking he'll start training camp on the physically unable to perform list (PUP), just as he did when recovering from a torn pectoral muscle two offseasons ago. He'll look to be "bulletproof" by Week 1, which will be 10 months post-surgery.
What's fun to ponder is if his last full game before getting hurt was just a preview of the rest of Kraft's career.
In a big road win at Pittsburgh, which featured receiver Christian Watson's return from his torn ACL, Kraft had his best game as a pro – seven catches, 143 yards, two TDs, and running with abandon every time he got his hands on the ball.
It was his second 100-yard game of the season (also Week 2 vs. Washington, 6-124-1). As the proverbial saying goes, the game had slowed down for Kraft in his third year. He was beating man coverage more regularly, and he was looking even more dangerous after the catch.
His role was growing, for good reason, and he wants to remain as big a part of the offense as he was when his season came to a screeching halt.
"I wasn't feeling that stress or anxiety, mainly just excitement," he said of his 2025 season. "I was hungry for every snap, every opportunity I could get. That's going to be the same thing going forward. I don't know entirely what my future holds in this offense, but … as many snaps as I can get, whether that's 40 or 65. I don't ever want to come out of this game again.
"Moving forward, I do feel like as a tight end, I'm a full package and that I can be anything for this team. Just put the ball in my hands."
This past season, a surge of explosive production from Watson once he progressed to a full workload helped the offense get back on track after an initial lull following Kraft's injury.
Watching those struggles, as well as how the season ended this past weekend in the wild-card round, was tough on the ultra-competitive Kraft. He had the joy of a newborn daughter at home, but he felt this Packers team "had all the pieces" before injuries befell him, Micah Parsons, Devonte Wyatt and others.
Now that the missing-out part is over, he's focused on rejoining the team and being ready when needed.
"When I wasn't able to be out there for the last month and a half, two months this season, it was really hard on me … just knowing that, if I would have been out there and contributing, maybe things would have gone different," he said. "But the end of the day, my injury is my reality, and all I can do is work and come back to be a better Packer than I was before.
"This is something I could have gone without, but it will make me a better person, a better athlete, a better teammate. It just has to."
