Packer Central

Packers 2024 Report Card: Grading Tucker Kraft and Tight Ends

Tucker Kraft took a big step forward in Year 2. Good thing, because Luke Musgrave receded into the background.

Bill Huber

Green Bay Packers tight end Tucker Kraft (85) spikes the ball after catching a touchdown pass against the Detroit Lions.
Green Bay Packers tight end Tucker Kraft (85) spikes the ball after catching a touchdown pass against the Detroit Lions. / Lon Horwedel-Imagn Images
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GREEN BAY, Wis. – Part 4 of our annual Green Bay Packers player report cards focus on the tight ends.

Really, though, it’s Tucker Kraft and everyone else.

As we’ve done for about 15 seasons, the grades are viewed through the lens of the salary cap. Why? Because the financial component is so critical to building a team. A championship team needs its most-expensive players to be among its best players, and it needs young, inexpensive players to rise to prominent roles.

All cap figures are from OverTheCap.com. Analytical stats are from Pro Football Focus and Sports Info Solutions.

Luke Musgrave

2024 salary cap: $1,926,305. Position rank: 47th.

Luke Musgrave was supposed to be Green Bay’s premier tight end. As a second-round pick in 2023, he caught 33 passes as a rookie before suffering a lacerated kidney in the 10th game of the season. That opened the door for Tucker Kraft, and Musgrave never has gotten within knocking distance.

This year, a quiet training camp led to a quiet start to the season with five catches for 22 yards in the first five games. He suffered a significant ankle injury in that fifth game against Minnesota and wound up having surgery. He was back for the final three games of the regular season and the playoff loss against the Eagles, with two catches for 23 yards in a total of 52 snaps in those four games.

He finished the season with seven catches for 45 yards. His 19-yard catch in Week 18 against Chicago was his only catch of more than 6 yards. The run game was 1.17 yards per carry worse when he was on the field.

It'd be easy to dismiss this season because of the ankle injury, but he already had sort of faded into the background. Musgrave must attack this offseason with a vengeance to carve out a key role.

Grade: D.

Tucker Kraft

2024 salary cap: $1,258,621. Position rank: 57th.

Tucker Kraft was selected one round after Musgrave but has blown past him. That Kraft is the team’s No. 1 tight end is obvious. The only question is just how far Kraft can move up the list of the NFL’s premier tight ends.

He took steps in that direction in 2024.

He finished fifth among all tight ends with 923 snaps. He played at least 40 snaps in every game, with 60-plus in five games.

Kraft caught 50 passes for 707 yards (14.1 average) and seven touchdowns. In franchise history, he finished fifth in yards, eighth in touchdowns and 10th in yards per catch.

Of 39 tight ends who were targeted at least 34 times (two per game), Kraft ranked second with 14.1 yards per catch (George Kittle, 14.2), first with 9.3 yards after the catch per catch (Kittle, 6.6), tied for first with 15 missed tackles (with Jake Ferguson) and fifth with a 134.6 passer rating when targeted (Mark Andrews, 140.9).

He dropped three passes this year – a solid 3.8 percent – after having zero drops with 31 catches in 2023. His superb hands were obvious on this unreal touchdown against the Texans.

The next step might be in the hands of the coaches. Kraft is such a playmaker; it’s time to highlight him as the No. 1 read rather than, at times, being only a safety-valve target.

Kraft entered the season hoping to be the best zone-blocking tight end in the NFL. He was dominant at times but not all the time. The run game was 0.22 yards per carry better when he was on the field. That was nearly 0.80 yards better than any of the team’s other tight ends. He must get better in pass protection.

Because he’s on his rookie deal, Kraft is being paid like a low-level No. 2 tight end. In reality, he’d be a bargain at twice the price.

Grade: A.

Ben Sims

2024 salary cap: $915,000. Position rank: 94th.

Luke Musgrave’s injury vastly increased the role for Ben Sims, who entered the NFL as a seventh-round pick by the Vikings in 2023. In the first four games, he played 11 snaps. He played more than that in each of the next 11 games, with at least 24 snaps in three games.

However, in the final three games, he played three snaps against the Vikings, seven against the Bears and was a healthy inactive against the Eagles.

Sims caught four passes for 42 yards, highlighted by a 28-yarder against Arizona. The run game was 1.16 yards per carry worse when he was on the field, though some of that was the sheer predictability that the Packers were going to run when he was on the field.

Grade: C-minus.

John FitzPatrick

2024 salary cap: $711,389. Position rank: 105th.

With Luke Musgrave out, the Packers grabbed John FitzPatrick off the Falcons’ practice squad. A sixth-round pick by Atlanta in 2022, he played 73 snaps – 14 in the blowout win over San Francisco and 26 in the blowout win over the Saints. He was the third tight end over Sims for the playoff game, with one snap on offense and 10 on special teams.

He was thrown one pass, a catch for 2 yards against the 49ers. The run game was 0.57 yards per carry worse when he was on the field. Some of that was circumstance: Like with Ben Sims, when FitzPatrick was on the field, chances are the Packers were going to run the football. Run blocking was his forte at Georgia and will give him a chance for an extensive career.

Grade: C.

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Bill Huber
BILL HUBER

Bill Huber, who has covered the Green Bay Packers since 2008, is the publisher of Packers On SI, a Sports Illustrated channel. E-mail: packwriter2002@yahoo.com History: Huber took over Packer Central in August 2019. Twitter: https://twitter.com/BillHuberNFL Background: Huber graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, where he played on the football team, in 1995. He worked in newspapers in Reedsburg, Wisconsin Dells and Shawano before working at The Green Bay News-Chronicle and Green Bay Press-Gazette from 1998 through 2008. With The News-Chronicle, he won several awards for his commentaries and page design. In 2008, he took over as editor of Packer Report Magazine, which was founded by Hall of Fame linebacker Ray Nitschke, and PackerReport.com. In 2019, he took over the new Sports Illustrated site Packer Central, which he has grown into one of the largest sites in the Sports Illustrated Media Group.