Tucker Kraft characterized the nine-month ACL recovery window as the “data-backed cookie-cutter rehabilitation timeline.” The Green Bay Packers tight end has made it back to the practice field in about eight and a half months.
The Packers activated the fourth-year pro off the physically unable to perform (PUP) list on Friday. He tore the ACL in his right knee on Nov. 2 against the Carolina Panthers, suffering a setback that derailed a potential All-Pro campaign.
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“I don’t want anyone to get their expectations too high,” Kraft said Friday during training camp, at which he’s now a limited participant.
“I’m not going to be doing anything too crazy here for a while, but as long as our GM and our training staff and the coaches and everyone’s on the same page, I’ll just get phased in period by period until you guys see me out there taking team reps. So that’s the goal. We’re on that ramp-up phase right now to get ready for Week 1.”
The Packers’ season opener is on Sept. 13, when they’ll face the Minnesota Vikings on the road. That could be the first time Kraft plays against another team since his injury, as he told reporters Friday that it’s unlikely he participates in preseason games this year.
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He hopes to take part in a joint practice, if possible.
“It’s just learning how to play competitive again,” he said. “I would say I’m 98% back. That 2% is me getting ripped on my face from a D-End or taking on contact, playing a little bit more fullback and getting back to the catch transition again and everything like that.
“You can’t stimulate that stuff when you’re constantly playing against your own teammates.”
What makes Kraft’s return particularly interesting is that it arrives as he enters the final year of his rookie deal. Green Bay selected the 6-foot-5, 259-pound tight end in the third round of the 2023 draft out of South Dakota State. He’s responsible for 15 career touchdown catches. A reliable target for quarterback Jordan Love, Kraft piled up 32 receptions, 489 receiving yards and 6 scoring grabs across eight games last season.
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Kraft, 25, was asked if he feels any hesitation to go full go without a contract extension.
“I understand other people’s worries in that facet,” he said. “However, I myself, I’m just worried about getting back to who I was pre-injury.”
Discussing the report he received from a UW BADGER Lab doctor, Kraft said it was “almost like he had never seen a rehabilitation like mine.”
“So the fact that we’re getting those results,” he continued, “the data will speak for itself and my comeback is ever ascending, day by day.”
Packers head coach Matt LaFleur revealed Friday that, to start at least, Kraft won’t be involved in team drills at training camp. LaFleur detailed how Green Bay would like to get Kraft ingrained in practice again, beginning with individual work.
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“What’s great is when they do come off PUP, then now he can partake in some of the walkthrough periods, especially that we do in the evenings,” LaFleur said. “Just to get him back hearing the call, lining up, and then just going through that.”
Kraft recognizes and accepts that the Packers want to make sure he doesn’t push the envelope. He recalled conversation with general manager Brian Gutekunst, who Kraft said is essentially protecting the playmaking tight end from himself.
“Because I’m all gas,” Kraft said. “Like a tricycle, I don’t come with brakes. So it’s really just helping me establish that mindset of consistency through a slow ramp up, and that’s it.”
Kraft said, though, that if he was asked a month ago if he was ready, he would’ve replied with a yes.
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