Tucker Kraft Missed Boobirds’ Troubling Point During Packers’ Loss to Falcons

GREEN BAY, Wis. – The home opener is supposed to be a celebratory occasion. Lambeau Field was alive and shaking at kickoff of Thursday’s game between the Green Bay Packers and Atlanta Falcons.

The fireworks, the flyover, the towels, the primetime lights – it was a magical scene for the fired-up fans.

About an hour-and-a-half later, boos filled the air as the Packers trudged to the locker room with a 17-7 halftime deficit.

The fans’ anger only grew louder when quarterback Jordan Love, with an unblocked defender sprinting at him with bad intentions, essentially threw the ball blindly into the middle of nowhere on fourth-and-goal at the 1.

When Brian Robinson ran untouched into the end zone on the ensuing possession, the score was 24-7. With 3:38 remaining in the third quarter, some of the fans started heading for the exits. The rest of them continued their booing.

At the end of the night, with the Packers suffering a humiliating 35-14 loss to a team that had been 0-2, had scored 16 points in its first two games and lost by 31 points just four days earlier, the 10,000-or-so fans booed the Packers off the field.

“It’s tough but, at the end of the day, it’s an entertainment business, so we have to put a better product out on the field if we want to have the fans have our back,” receiver Christian Watson said. “Obviously, we like to think that the fans will be there through the ups and downs, but we’ve got to put out a better performance than that.”

Tucker Kraft Sounds Off

After the game, tight end Tucker Kraft – a premier player and obvious fan favorite whose small-town roots are the perfect match for the small-market Packers – wasn’t happy.

“Yeah, that’s pretty tough,” Kraft said. “Everyone pictures Lambeau Field and not boos. I don’t picture boos. I picture my home stadium. That’s tough. It’s pretty disappointing.

“Especially for a home opener, it’s pretty disappointing. It’s not going to help us win. I don’t know what people think that’s going to rally us or something like that. But we’re grown men. We’re mentally strong enough, capable enough to get back on the field and play ball. But it’d probably much easier with the 70,000 people behind us rather than opposing us.”

In a way, Kraft is right. Players react to cheering fans, not boobirds. It’s not as if disgruntled fans are a suitable stand-in for a “Win one for the Gipper” speech.

Kraft’s missing the point, though, and it only has a little bit to do with fans paying a couple hundred bucks to see an inferior product and then having to go to work/school the next day.

The Real Message From the Fans

The fans are angry. And that anger runs much, much deeper than having to suffer through the sixth-largest home defeat in the last 40 seasons.

Under coach Matt LaFleur, the Packers reached NFC Championship Games in 2019 and 2020 but fell one win short of the Super Bowl. They were the No. 1 seed in the playoffs in 2021 but were bounced in the first playoff game. The 2022 season went sideways during Aaron Rodgers’ final season as the quarterback, but the 2023 season was a rebirth with Jordan Love.

.@BillHuberNFL brought this up on The Green Bay Beat today and @RichEisenShow agrees (I had to shout out the show).

Packer fans booing is probably rooted more in frustration with Matt LaFleur, Brian Gutekunst & organizational stagnancy than anything else. You can’t blame them. pic.twitter.com/fZ9pNyJakc
— Matt Schneidman (@mattschneidman) September 25, 2026

But the Packers went one-and-done as the No. 7 seed in the 2024 playoffs and again in the 2025 playoffs. Last season, of course, ended with five consecutive losses, capped by the epic wild-card collapse at the rival Bears.

The fans – not all, but many – wanted change. Instead, they got contract extensions for the two leading men, LaFleur and general manager Brian Gutekunst.

This offseason, the Packers didn’t make any noteworthy additions in free agency. They didn’t have a first-round pick.

After last season went nowhere, what reason was there to believe that this season would end up in a better spot? The fans aren’t stupid. There’s been an obvious lack of buzz around this year’s team, and understandably so. Other than a season or two here and there, the Packers have been Super Bowl contenders entering just about every season for more than 30 years.

Not this year. Unless there is a drastic turnaround, this season is predictably going to be a major disappointment.

The fans are sick and tired of this iteration of the Packers. Team President Ed Policy tuned them out when extending LaFleur and Gutekunst. And that’s fine. He’s paid to make key decisions, not stick his index finger in the air to judge the winds of popular opinion.

Nonetheless, what happened on Thursday was the boiling-over point from fan frustration. Yeah, the fans were booing the players. They were booing a poorly constructed and ill-prepared offensive line for not protecting Love. They were booing the $220 million quarterback for throwing incomplete passes. They were booing Kraft for dropping passes. They were booing the defense for getting a wedgie. They were booing the team for a 1-2 start to the season that was perilously close to being 0-3.

But mostly, they were booing LaFleur for coaching the team to a seventh loss in its last eight games. They were booing Gutekunst for assembling a high-priced team that had been spinning its wheels and now is trending the wrong way. They were booing Policy for believing LaFleur and Gutekunst are the right men for the job.

Packers fans are passionate. But anger is going to become apathy unless the team can solve its myriad number of problems.

The Packers’ season is in trouble. The short-term outlook for the franchise might be in bigger trouble.

The Packers gave Matt LaFleur a contract extension.

It's time to show he's worth it. ⬇️https://t.co/hFNAE0xRiQ
— Bill Huber (@BillHuberNFL) September 25, 2026

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