Green Bay’s offense has reached the point where one question keeps surfacing after every drive: is this fixable by getting Tucker Kraft more involved, or is the problem bigger than any one player?
The Packers are 1-2, their only win coming in overtime against the Jets, and they sit two games back of the NFC North lead in sole possession of last place in the division. The home opener loss to the Falcons ended a streak of 13 straight home openers without a defeat, a run tied for the NFL record. Now they head into a road trip to Tampa Bay with a short week’s worth of self-scouting and a lot of the same offensive issues still staring them in the face.
The most obvious one starts up front. Green Bay has allowed Jordan Love to be hit or sacked 27 times, the most for any quarterback through three games in the last 17 seasons. That number doesn’t just sit on the stat sheet; it helps explain why the Packers are dead last in the NFL in average time per drive, at just two minutes and 16 seconds. They are also averaging an 8.8-yard third-down distance, 31st in the league, and have punted on 17.5 percent of their drives, fifth-most in the NFL.
That’s the backdrop for the Tucker Kraft conversation. It’s no secret Kraft is a major part of the Packers’ offensive plans, but through three games he has looked more like a secondary option than a featured one. He has nine catches for 106 yards and no touchdowns, averaging just three receptions per game. On plays where Love has to get the ball out quickly, Kraft has been relegated to that secondary role.
And yet the answer is not as simple as “use Kraft more.”
“Of course, just saying ‘use Kraft more’ is a tough solution.”
That line gets to the tension inside Green Bay’s offense. Kraft is clearly part of what the Packers want to do, and the team still needs him more than it has gotten from him so far. But the larger issue is whether the offense can string together enough competent snaps to let any one player matter consistently. Green Bay has struggled to sustain drives, and when possessions end quickly, the defense keeps getting sent back onto the field.
That has been part of the strain on the other side of the ball, too. The Packers have faced an average of 12 drives per game, third-most in the league, because the offense has not held onto the ball long enough to give the defense a breather. The result is a team that keeps playing from behind the schedule of the game itself.
Kraft, for his part, has owned his part of the mess. He talked about the need for self-reflection over the mini-bye and acknowledged his own missed opportunities and dropped passes against Atlanta. That matters because the Packers do need more from him, but it also underscores how many layers there are to the problem. Green Bay is not waiting on one clean fix. It is trying to repair a passing game, a protection problem and a drive-sustaining problem at the same time.
The schedule does not offer much room to ease into that work. The next two matchups are against the Buccaneers and Bears, and the Packers’ offensive line will be tested again after already absorbing the kind of punishment that has defined the start of the season. The front has to prove it can hold up even against a bad pass-rushing group, and the bigger picture is still hanging over everything: there is a lot of football left, and belief remains in Matt LaFleur and Love to get Green Bay back into the win column.
That belief is what keeps the season from feeling closed off in September. But the standings are the standings, and the tape is the tape. Green Bay’s offense is not just underperforming in one area. It is shortening drives, exposing the defense, and leaving the Packers with too many possessions that end before Kraft, or anyone else, can become the answer.