Kraft Won’t Talk About Timelines, But …

Exactly one month before the Green Bay Packers are set to kick off the 2024 NFL season against the Philadelphia Eagles, tight end Tucker Kraft made his training camp debut on Tuesday.

Will he be ready for Week 1 in Brazil?

“Without a doubt,” Kraft said after practice. “I’m not supposed to talk about timelines and stuff like that. But you see me out there today, you’ll see me in Brazil.”

Kraft suffered a torn pectoral during offseason workouts. He missed OTAs, minicamp and the first 10 practices of training camp.

Before practice, coach Matt LaFleur said Kraft would be worked back into the action slowly. Kraft won’t play against the Browns on Saturday. What about the second preseason game at Denver?

“The next two games are not on the plate. We’re worried about Brazil,” Kraft said.

A torn pectoral, obviously, is detrimental to a player getting strong or even staying strong. However, Kraft said testing shows “everything was within or above my good arm – within like a 5 percent threshold of strength or better.”

The initial goal was to return to practice next week, he said.

“Over the next two weeks, there will be just more and more,” Kraft said. “I was in the indoor for the last three weeks and just grinding in there. Trying to get as familiar with contact again as possible, working in those weird positions – positions I don’t want to be in. But just working through those and see if they cause pain. We’re progressing really well.”

A typical training camp practice begins with warmups inside the Don Hutson Center. Once on the practice field, the first period is a half-speed walk-through between the offense and defense. Kraft did participate in that period – he got into a shoving match with Brenton Cox that had to be separated by Jordan Love – before taking part in individual run-blocking and pass-catching drills.

Kraft is confident he’s not only healthy but can reach a lofty goal because he did just about everything possible during his rehab to insure he’s ready.