Green Bay Must Prioritize Extending Tucker Kraft This Offseason

Green Bay Packers’ tight end Tucker Kraft was on pace for an All-Pro caliber season before tearing his ACL against the Carolina Panthers in November. For context, Kyle Pitts earned second-team All-Pro honors with 928 receiving yards and five touchdowns. If you project Kraft’s production over a full 17-game schedule, he would have finished with roughly 1,039 yards and 13 touchdowns.

His injury could delay negotiations for his next contract. However, the reality is Green Bay should prioritize extending him before the start of the 2026 season.

As seen in the clip above, Tucker Kraft is progressing well for someone just six months removed from an ACL tear. It’s still unclear if he’ll be ready for Week 1, but the Packers have expressed privately that they see him as a long-term piece, regardless of when he’s back on the field.

“Obviously, he’s a really important part of this football team, and we would certainly like to have him around,” Gutekunst said regarding his star tight end earlier this year.

“That’ll be something we work through with his people, and we’ll kind of see what’s best for us, best for them. Certainly, the impact that he has on our football team, not only as a player but as a leader, is very important to us. We’ve already been in contact with him, just letting him know how we feel, and we’ll kind of see where it goes.”

The reality is simple: If Kraft returns at the same level he played at before the injury, his market value will only rise. Waiting would mean paying a premium for proven, elite production. Conversely, acting early allows the Packers to secure a cornerstone player before his price fully reflects that trajectory.

“It’ll be great to have Tucker Kraft coming off his ACL injury,” LaFleur said in March. “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.”

Elite tight ends are now approaching the $20 million per year range, with George Kittle at $19.1 million, Trey McBride at $19 million, T. J. Hockenson at $16.5 million, and Kyle Pitts playing on the franchise tag at $15.045 million.

Based on Spotrac estimates, Kraft’s current value would land around a four-year, $62 million extension, which comes to roughly $15.5 million per season. That’s a fair projection, though the rising cap could push that number higher.

Even so, that figure serves as a reasonable starting point considering his recovery. The Packers have already shown they are comfortable investing in players coming off injuries, signing Christian Watson to a one-year, $11 million deal while he was recovering from an ACL tear, a move that ultimately paid off.

Kraft presents a different situation. His level of production at the position makes a short-term deal harder to justify, but even a long-term extension would likely account for some level of risk. That could show up through slightly lower guarantees or an incentive-based structure, as the team weighs his upside against the uncertainty that still comes with returning from a significant knee injury.

Based on everything we’ve seen from the starting tight end on the field and the updates from his recovery, Tucker Kraft could be back sooner rather than later, and there’s reason to expect him to pick up right where he left off. If that happens, locking him into a long-term extension should be at the top of the priority list for Green Bay.