Matt LaFleur isn’t hiding how much the Green Bay Packers missed Tucker Kraft last season, and he’s made it clear how much they’re counting on him in 2026.
Kraft tore his ACL on Nov. 2 against Carolina, ending what was shaping up as a dominant campaign. The tight end led Green Bay in receiving yards and touchdowns through eight games before the injury derailed everything.
Matt LaFleur Shares Update on Tucker Kraft’s Injury Recovery
Speaking at the Annual League Meeting in Phoenix on Sunday, LaFleur provided an encouraging update on his star tight end’s progress.
“He’s been around quite a bit. Watching him train and rehab and go through that process, he’s gonna be a big focal point of our offense,” LaFleur said. The head coach added that Kraft is “right on schedule” in his recovery.
The numbers tell a stark story about Kraft’s value to Jordan Love. Before the Nov. 2 injury against Carolina, Love had thrown 13 touchdowns in seven games. In the four games immediately following, he managed 6. Love posted a near-perfect 148.6 passer rating when targeting Kraft, who led the team with 344 yards after the catch.
Kraft’s 32 catches for 489 yards and 6 touchdowns through eight games put him in rare company. He became just the third tight end in league history to record at least 30 receptions, 450 yards, and 6 touchdowns while averaging 15.3 yards per catch that early in a season. The others were Jimmy Graham in 2013 and Rob Gronkowski in 2015.
Despite his injury, according to PFSN’s TE Impact Metric, Kraft finished the season as the best tight end in the league with an impact score of 90.9.
The Packers went 1-of-5 in the red zone against the Panthers. That trend continued without his presence over the middle. Green Bay’s passing attack lost its most reliable chain-mover, and while the team still reached the playoffs at 9-7-1, the wild-card loss to Chicago exposed an offense that never fully recovered.
Romeo Doubs’ Departure to Patriots Makes Kraft’s Return Critical
Romeo Doubs signed a four-year, $68 million deal with the Patriots in free agency, taking his career-best 724 yards and 6 touchdowns to New England. LaFleur acknowledged the difficulty of replacing him.
That opportunity falls squarely on Kraft’s shoulders. With Doubs gone, Love loses his leading receiver from 2025. The remaining wideouts, Christian Watson, Jayden Reed, Dontayvion Wicks, and second-year first-rounder Matthew Golden, provide speed and versatility, but none offer Kraft’s combination of size, contested-catch ability, and after-the-catch explosiveness.
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Love’s evolution into an efficient passer showed in 2025 despite the obstacles. He threw just 6 interceptions compared to 11 in each of his previous two seasons, posting a career-best 101.2 passer rating. But the big-play element that defined Green Bay’s offense early in the year vanished once his safety valve was gone.
The Packers have made the playoffs three consecutive years under Love’s leadership, but have failed to make a deep run. Ending that trend requires more than just maintaining the same system, but getting Kraft back on the field and keeping him there will be very helpful.
