With training camp now less than three weeks away — Green Bay’s rookies and injured players report July 27, full-squad work begins July 29 — the Packers’ most consequential offseason business is not on the practice field. It is a contract. An extension for tight end Tucker Kraft has emerged as the front office’s clearest priority before camp, and the number attached to it keeps climbing.
Kraft is entering the final year of his rookie deal, and a run of pre-camp coverage this week — including a checklist from A to Z Sports — frames him as the extension Green Bay should close first. The projections are not modest. Analysts have floated a deal in the neighborhood of $20 million per year, which would place Kraft among the highest-paid tight ends in football. For a franchise that prefers to pay its own ascending players a year early rather than bid against the open market later, that is the familiar Packers math: expensive now, cheaper than the alternative.
The patient approach has a complication this summer, and it is Kraft’s health. He is working back from injury alongside offensive lineman Zach Tom, and reporting suggests both have a realistic shot to handle at least portions of camp with the goal of being right for Week 1. A player rehabbing is not one the team wants to rush to the negotiating table, but he is also not one whose price is going to fall. Green Bay knows what it has in a tight end who became a genuine outlet for Jordan Love.
Kraft is not the only name on the ledger. Defensive tackle Devonte Wyatt is playing on his fifth-year option at just under $13 million, another extension question the team will weigh, and there are roster decisions and injury updates stacked behind both. But priorities are priorities. If the Packers get one deal done before the pads go on, the organizational logic points squarely at Kraft.
What is next: watch whether Green Bay moves before camp opens July 29 or lets the season play out and revisits the deal in-year. History says this front office would rather not wait — and rarely does once it has decided a young player is part of the core.
