The Green Bay Packers checked off two major boxes this offseason when they agreed to contract extensions with Christian Watson and Jayden Reed. The job isn’t finished, though. Next up is tight end Tucker Kraft, who’s every bit as critical to the operation as Watson and Reed.
Any talk of who should be next in line for the Packers to rev up contract extension discussions should start with Kraft’s name.
Kraft was tracking to reset Green Bay’s tight end record books before a torn ACL abruptly ended his 2025 season in Week 9 against the Carolina Panthers.
Green Bay made Kraft a focal point of the offense and the passing game, regardless of who is in or who is out of the lineup. As a result, he has emerged as one of the best young tight ends in football.
Watson and Reed getting extensions done before Kraft is in no way the Packers showing preferential treatment. Reed’s extension ended up being very team-friendly, and while Watson cashed in big time, his extension was in the range of second-tier wide receivers in the NFL, not the top tier.
Kraft’s extension won’t be as easy to navigate because he’s a tight end on the rise who’s entering the top tier for his position. However, he’s also coming off a brutal injury. Kraft’s extension could, as Ian Rapoport of NFL Network noted, reset the tight end market.
Tucker Kraft is still out there and I would consider him to a big time priority for Green Bay. He looks great as he’s coming back. He looks excellent. I wouldn’t be surprised if contract talks waited until he’s fully, fully cleared. You’re talking about a guy who will probably reset the tight end market that badly needs to be reset. That would probably be one of them. LaPorta would probably be another.
The types of deals that reset the market for a position aren’t easy to hammer home. While both sides will be motivated to get something done, there will surely be plenty of back-and-forth.
However, after Watson and Reed inked their extensions, Kraft is the easy one to pivot to next on offense. Somewhere, Jordan Love has to be smiling ear to ear.
Nobody in Green Bay is shying away from the trajectory Kraft is on. Earlier in the offseason, Matt LaFleur said that Kraft will remain a focal point of the offense.
“It’ll be great to have Tucker Kraft coming off his ACL injury. 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.”
The ACL injury he suffered last year may have slightly altered their plans, but all indicators suggest that Kraft’s rehab is on schedule and he should be ready for either the start of training camp or around that time. If that’s the case and Rapoport’s reporting is accurate, the Packers could simply be waiting until early in training camp to see Kraft back in action.
LaFleur reconfirmed that timeline of being ready for training camp or in that general timeframe in late May.
“Tuck looks great right now,” LaFleur said. “He looks so good, you wanna put him out there, but certainly, we’re still early in that process. Hopefully he’ll be ready to go either by training camp or early in training camp.”
The question with Watson wasn’t if an extension would get done, but when. Kraft is now in the same situation, with no reservations about whether it will be in Green Bay for the long run. Instead, it’s about the particulars of the deal.
Defensive lineman Devonte Wyatt is also coming off a brutal season-ending injury and is entering the final year of his deal. Green Bay showed its intentions a bit last offseason when it picked up Wyatt’s fifth-year option but not linebacker Quay Walker‘s. Walker signed with the Las Vegas Raiders in the offseason.
If Wyatt looks the same upon returning from a broken fibula and suffering some ankle ligament damage, he’s also a prime candidate to get an extension. His extension also won’t reset any makets, so it’s possible he could leapfrog Kraft. However, his recovery progress makes it difficult to determine the timing of his extension at the moment.
In any case, the clear-cut choice to hammer out an extension next is Kraft. If done so this summer, Green Bay will have its main core at wide receiver along with its budding star at tight end all locked in for the foreseeable future.
Tucker Kraft should be next up.
