GREEN BAY – The word Rashan Gary uttered at the sight of Tucker Kraft laying on the field is one that need not be repeated.
But it perfectly summed up the Packers’ reaction to seeing their star tight end going down with a knee injury early in the third quarter of Sunday’s 16-13 loss to the Carolina Panthers.
Kraft was carted to the locker room shortly thereafter and Head Coach Matt LaFleur told reporters after the game, “It doesn’t look good.”
“Everybody knows the type of season Tuck is having, the type of player he is for Green Bay,” Gary said. “The type of player he is on the practice field, in the locker room, just as a man.
“When you see a guy who’s been working his butt off from OTAs to offseason to camp, you see him preparing, getting ready to have a great year as he is – that’s a guy we need on the team.”
Voted a team captain at just 24 years old, Kraft was off to a brilliant start to his third NFL season. The 6-foot-5, 259-pound tight end entered Sunday as Green Bay’s leading receiver with 30 catches for 469 yards and six touchdowns in seven games.
Kraft was just one week removed from a career day in the Packers’ 35-25 win in Pittsburgh where he caught seven passes for 143 yards and two TDs.
He already had two catches for 20 yards against the Panthers when he injured his knee while blocking on Josh Jacobs‘ 15-yard run with 12½ minutes left in the third quarter.
The drive stalled shortly after Kraft’s departure. Quarterback Jordan Love was then intercepted on the Packers’ next possession before Green Bay turned the ball over on downs at the Carolina 13-yard line early in the fourth quarter.
The Packers certainly missed Kraft’s presence in the red zone, where they went 1-of-5, but his absence was felt everywhere.
“I mean (shoot) anywhere on the field,” right tackle Zach Tom said. “He’s obviously a big part of our offense – run game, pass game. So not having him out there definitely was a blow to us (but) just gotta move on and recover from it. Obviously, I feel for him but we still gotta be able to execute.”
Fellow 2023 draft classmate Luke Musgrave stepped up in Kraft’s absence on the Packers’ game-tying drive later in the fourth quarter. He caught a 21-yard pass to start the 12-play series before hauling two more passes for 13 additional yards.
The Packers later punched it in on a 1-yard Jacobs TD run to tie the game at 13 with 2:32 remaining.
“You never want to see injuries. Injuries are the worst part of football, so yeah, it sucks,” Musgrave said. “Just focused on doing my assignment, doing my job. Just trying to do everything I can do to help the team win. So whatever that might be, I’m game for.”
It was a tough day all-around on the injury front for the Packers. In addition to Kraft, defensive lineman Colby Wooden (shoulder), left guard Aaron Banks (stinger), receiver Matthew Golden (shoulder) exited and didn’t return.
For now, all the Packers can do is hold out hope for their prominent locker-room leader.
“I know who he is for this team and what he means for this team. That’s a heavy blow for us,” Jacobs said. “A lot of guys even in the locker room and even the huddle afterwards, we felt that. He’s a leader on this team. He’s a captain and he’s one of those guys that you really love to have on your team.”
“X” gets it done: Safety Xavier McKinney made a little history with his strip sack and interception during the Panthers’ second offensive possession.
He’s the first Packers defensive back to register a sack, an INT and a forced fumble in a game since Morgan Burnett did so against Carolina in Week 2 of the 2011 season. Unfortunately the Panthers recovered McKinney’s forced fumble.
“He a dawg, an All-Pro player and that’s an All-Pro play,” Gary said. “He understands how the offense wants to attack us. As you see when he’s able to be aggressive and go get it, he’s gonna go get it. He’s a big-time playmaker and he just gotta keep on doing it.”
Watson doing fine: Receiver Christian Watson was pulled off the field on the first play of the fourth quarter to be observed for a possible head injury.
The fourth-year wideout missed the rest of the series, which ended with Love’s incomplete pass on fourth-and-8, but was cleared to return for the next drive.
“I was great. I was straight,” said Watson, who finished with two catches for 58 yards. “I was just hoping I’d be able to get back out there sooner and get back on the field.”
Running behind Josh: With his fourth-quarter TD run, Jacobs joined Jim Taylor as the only players in team history with 10-plus rushing TDs in back-to-back seasons.
It also marked the eighth consecutive home game in which Jacobs has scored, extending the longest streak by a Packer in team history (since 1933), per Elias.
Jacobs finished with 87 rushing yards on 17 carries (5.1 ypc), his second-most rushing yards in a game this season.
“Me personally, I felt good.” Jacobs said. “I felt a lot of lanes out there the whole day. I mean, running the ball, I seen a lot even on the bad plays that we did have. I still felt like it was a lot out there.”
