Tucker Kraft targeting Week 1 return from ACL tear

Tucker Kraft tore his ACL in Week 9 of last season against the Panthers, and for a while that felt like it might cost the Packers their best young offensive weapon for a big chunk of 2026. Instead, the updates keep trending the right way. Kraft got activated off the PUP list, he's been cleared for full training camp reps, and now his own offensive coordinator is putting a Week 1 target on the calendar.

Packers OC Adam Stenavich said he's hopeful Kraft will be ready to go when Green Bay opens the season, according to Ryan Wood. That's about as clean a signal as you'll get this early in camp, and it lines up with what Kraft himself has said about wanting to start the year with no pitch count at all.

This isn't just a health story, it's a fantasy football story. Before the injury wiped out the back half of his season, Kraft was in the middle of a genuine breakout, catching passes at an absurd efficiency rate for a tight end. Hayden Winks flagged the specific split that made analysts drool: Kraft was averaging 4.5 air yards of depth of target but still hauling in 11.4 yards per target, a gap that basically doesn't happen for tight ends who aren't turning routine catches into chunk plays.

That efficiency is also why some analysts are hedging on him as a potential regression candidate even with the health checking out, since numbers that gaudy are hard to sustain. Still, the arrow was pointing straight up before the ACL tear. In 2025 Kraft posted 32 catches for 489 yards and 6 touchdowns in just 8 games, building on a 2024 season where he caught 50 passes for 707 yards and 7 scores in his first full year as a starter.

Jordan Love, for his part, isn't hiding how much he's leaned on Kraft as a security blanket in the middle of the field. Love called Kraft one of those guys that brings the energy, that dawg mindset, and said he's expecting big things once Kraft is fully back on the field.

Green Bay opens the 2026 season against the Vikings, and how Kraft looks in that game will say a lot about how the Packers' passing attack functions early on. He's already shown he can be a matchup nightmare underneath and down the seam. If Stenavich's optimism holds up through the rest of camp, fantasy managers and Packers fans alike are getting the version of Kraft that made him one of the league's most productive young tight ends before the knee gave out.