GREEN BAY – Tucker Kraft knew what he was doing coming into the NFL.
The Packers' gritty tight end wasn't distracted by the allure of highlight catches and touchdowns. As a rookie, Kraft wanted to play with physicality, hit people and improve his in-line blocking.
Don't get him wrong. The 6-foot-5, 259-pound tight end felt supremely confident in his abilities as a pass-catcher, but he also knew mastering the dirty parts of the job would only make him that much more dangerous to defend.
"That's something I stressed," Kraft said. "People thought I was only worried about the run game, but I was continuing to say that through being a successful run blocker, opportunities open up in the pass game and we've seen that."
The Packers certainly have.
Kraft, a few weeks shy of his 24th birthday, has been one of the NFL's breakout tight ends through the first month of the season. He currently leads the Packers in TD receptions (three) and is second on the team with 16 catches for 218 receiving yards.
The 2023 third-round pick turned in perhaps his finest performance to date in last Sunday's 24-19 win over the Los Angeles Rams, finishing with a career-high 88 receiving yards and registering his first multiple-TD game with a pair of third quarter scores.
Kraft excels in the trenches and a lot of his early production has come out of looks based off the play-action game. Once the ball is in his hands, Kraft is hungry to trade broken tackles for yards after the catch.
Contact can come with a cost, though. Kraft has been wearing a red non-contact jersey in practice while battling a shoulder injury. Asked earlier this week about Kraft's mentality, Head Coach Matt LaFleur said he had no qualms with his tight end's playstyle.
"I think a lot of guys – George Kittle is that kind of player – you want guys playing on the edge, playing physical," LaFleur said. "But also playing smart at the same time … I don't want him every time he's going in, whether it's a cross-sift or an insert-block, just throwing his shoulder into people. Sometimes you gotta fit people up, use your hands, run your feet."
Kraft's contributions only grow in importance after LaFleur told reporters Thursday that 2023 second-round pick Luke Musgrave "more than likely" will be headed to injured reserve due to a lingering ankle injury.
Musgrave didn't practice last week but dressed in case of emergency against the Rams. He returned in a limited capacity Wednesday before again sitting out of Thursday's padded practice. LaFleur said the team is hopeful to get Musgrave back this season.
"He's been dealing with something and fighting through," LaFleur said. "(It) speaks to his toughness and competitiveness, the fact that he even suited up this last game was pretty impressive. I don't think we understood how serious it was, and so, he's going to be down for a minute."
As much as Kraft will miss his draft classmate, he doesn't see Musgrave's absence taking the Packers out of their popular two-tight end packages. He points towards fellow second-year pro Ben Sims, who produced four catches for 21 yards and a TD in spot duty last year.
The 6-foot-5, 250-pound tight end has only played 30 offensive snaps this year but is coming off a busy summer in which he stood in for an injured Kraft, who started training camp on the physically unable to perform list due to a pectoral injury.
While disappointed to not have Musgrave with him and Kraft at the moment, Sims is eager for the opportunity to show how he's grown. He's also not going to try to be anyone he's not in Musgrave's stead.
"With Tucker being out most of camp, it gave me a lot of opportunities to step up during camp and in the preseason," Sims said. "At that point it was me and Musgrave, it's just kind of inverted right now. We're going to miss Luke for a little bit, but it'll be same thing with me and Tuck running it. I feel confident."
Kraft's emergence as an offensive weapon comes as no surprise to Sims, who believes "all the work he's done in the dark is finally coming to light" this season.
Kraft appreciates the adulation he's receiving and the lofty comparisons he's heard recently. At the same time, his standard does not change and there's plenty more he wants to accomplish – including an even longer TD than his 66-yarder in Los Angeles.
"It comes to a point where I want to forge my own legacy in this league," Kraft said. "I think I play with a unique playstyle and I'm just gonna see how that carries me. I'm gonna play as hard as I can and be as violent as I can on every snap I'm in. If that takes me to seven years or to 10 years, I'm gonna be lucky to play every snap."
