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The Packers’ Tucker Kraft faces NFL star Mark Bavaro

Posted on by Taylor Reeves
The Packers’ Tucker Kraft faces NFL star Mark Bavaro

GREEN BAY, Wis. – Mark Bavaro and Tucker Kraft had something in common: They had never heard of each other before.

And why would they have done that?

Bavaro is a 61-year-old Boston native whose NFL career ended six years before Kraft was born.

Kraft is a 24-year-old from Timber Lake, South Dakota (pop. 509) who is currently trying to crack the inner circle of today’s top tight ends in the NFL.

Enter Rich Bisaccia, the Green Bay Packers’ old-school associate head coach/special teams coordinator. Bisaccia, 64, never coached Bavaro, but as a New Yorker he watched and loved how Bavaro, a two-time first-team All-Pro, played tight end for the Giants in the 1980s.

One day early this season, Bisaccia mentioned Bavaro’s name to Kraft.

“(Bisaccia) said you have to look at this guy,” Kraft said in late September. “I did that and I was amazed.”

A trip down the rabbit hole of Bavaro highlights on YouTube confirmed to Kraft that he and the Packers coaches had the same vision for his career.

“Just be physical and tough,” Kraft said. “YAC, that’s really all the guy was worried about…So I’m just trying to channel my inner Bavaro.”

Three months later, Kraft has put together a Bavaro-like season. Entering Week 16, he led all NFL tight ends in both YAC categories and wasn’t even close: his 8.9 yards after catch and 4.44 yards after contact per catch were better than two full ones Yards ahead of the second best in each category. Less than two full seasons into his NFL career, Kraft has made it clear to the league that he wants to be among the wildest tight ends.

“That tells me the kid likes contact, he likes to hit,” Bavaro said in an interview with ESPN last week. “That’s how I was raised.”

DO NOT FORCE TRAINING Shout out to NFL stardom. He played on the nine-man football team at Timber Lake High – a school with about 100 students – in South Dakota.

According to Timber Lake coach Ryan Gimbel, Kraft was just 5-11 as a high school freshman. Now he is 6 feet tall and weighs 259 pounds. Still, he was big enough to play tight end and defensive end, at least in the nine-man game.

“Then from his freshman year to his sophomore year he just exploded,” Gimbel said.

In his second year he switched to quarterback. According to Gimbel, he could throw, but they also used him as a runner while still playing defensive end.

Kraft remained at defensive end as a junior, but played primarily as a running back and some as a receiver.

As a senior, he played middle linebacker, running back and receiver.

Until one game.

“He got hurt in a game and twisted his ankle,” Gimbel remembers. “But he said, ‘I can still play, but I can’t run.’ So we threw him at guard and had his freshman cousin right behind him (Kraft), who couldn’t run, but he could block.

After being lightly recruited out of high school, he transferred to FCS power club South Dakota State in 2019. Even after a stellar career that included two FCS national championship game appearances with one title and two FCS All-American honors, Kraft was not at the top of most NFL tight end draft boards.

The Packers selected another tight end, Luke Musgrave (at No. 42 overall), in the second round, but they went back and selected Kraft (No. 78 overall) in the third round.

Six tight ends were selected before Kraft in 2023. Only one of them entered Week 16 with more catches than Kraft’s 41 and more receiving yards than Kraft’s 555. (Detroit’s Sam LaPorta, ranked 34th, had 43 catches for 556 yards.)

Of all tight ends, only Baltimore’s Mark Andrews and San Francisco’s George Kittle had more touchdown catches (eight) than Kraft (seven).

Although strength appeared In every game last season as a rookie, he barely played a role in the passing game through the first two months. In nine games in 2023, he had three catches for 11 yards and was a significant TE2 behind Musgrave.

And then came “The Hurdle”.

In Week 15 against the Buccaneers, with Musgrave in the middle of a six-week absence with an injured kidney, Kraft intercepted a pass and rumbled down the left sideline, where he attempted to jump over Tampa Bay defender Dee Delaney. Delaney’s helmet hit Kraft in a, well, sensitive spot.

Despite taking the shot in the groin, Kraft revealed his mantra: “Always move forward. Sometimes over, but always forward.”

That led to The Hurdle II.

Just a week after the Buccaneers game, Kraft attempted to jump over Panthers linebacker Brian Burns at the end of a 27-yard catch-and-run. Luckily for Kraft, Burns’ shoulder only brushed the underside of Kraft’s left leg as he fell out of bounds.

This season, Kraft has embodied his mantra: “Don’t let a DB attack me in space.”

Take the Week 5 win over the Rams, when Kraft, on one of two touchdown catches, stiffed cornerback Darious Williams and tossed safety Quentin Lake aside for a 66-yard catch-and-run score.

Even if Kraft goes down, it is dramatic. When he was drilled by two Lions defenders in the Week 14 game, Kraft performed an old WWE “kip-up” move to get back to his feet as if nothing had happened.

“He’s a little crazy, but I love it,” Packers running back Josh Jacobs said. “Crazy in every good way. You see how he plays, man.”

“It’s fun to play with a guy like that, putting his body on the line for you, getting hit by four guys to get a first down, things like that. You have to love teammates like that.”

It’s that kind of style, coupled with a penchant for trash talk, that could make Kraft not only one of the next star tight ends on the field, but also a Rob Gronkowski-like marketing personality.

Before this season’s rematch with the Lions, Kraft took a shot at Detroit safety Kerby Joseph, who was questioned last season about low hits that caused serious knee injuries to two tight ends, TJ Hockenson of the Vikings and Tyler Higbee of the Rams.

Kraft said: “Maybe I don’t agree with some of the places he likes to socialize. He took some of my brothers out of the game and I’m thinking about that too. I’ll get my chance to get my hands on him while playing football.” “

He almost got his hands on it during a pre-game altercation before the players were separated.

“(Kraft is) a guy that energizes other people just through his love of the game, his love of the team and of course the plays he makes, the way he plays the game,” the Packers quarterback said Jordan Love. “I think everyone here is a fan of it and loves watching it.

“Like I said, it gives off energy to everyone else.”

Kraft isn’t just interested in catching passes. During the offseason, he attended Tight End University – the offseason camp founded by Kittle, Travis Kelce and Greg Olsen. There he focused on another aspect of the position: blocking.

“One of my main goals coming into this season was to be one of the best blocking tight ends in the NFL,” Kraft said. “(So) many things depend on being a good run-blocking tight end. George works the same way.”

WHILE POWER IS Because he plays a much different game these days than he did back in Timber Lake, he reached into his memory earlier this season when he suggested to the Packers coaches that he be used as a ball carrier in a short-yardage situation.

He was telling offensive coordinator Adam Stenavich about a play they did in high school when he pointed under center and took a sneak.

“Yeah, we studied the tape back in the South Dakota high school film,” Stenavich joked.

Kraft was serious.

He eventually got Stenavich and coach Matt LaFleur to try the game in practice.

“I didn’t know he was good at it, so we tried it,” Stenavich said.

It didn’t make LaFleur’s call sheet in either the first or second weeks.

“I think he had to accept it before he could believe it,” Stenavich said of LaFleur. “That’s why we had to do it a few times in training.”

In Week 6, he got his chance on a third-and-1 against the Cardinals in the fourth quarter. Kraft waved from his tight end spot, and with Love in the shotgun, Kraft ducked under center and made a direct snap. With a push from behind by running back Emanuel Wilson, Kraft achieved the first down.

Three weeks later, in the first game against the Lions, Kraft did it again. This time he converted a fourth-and-1.

When asked if he had seen those plays, Gimbel, the Timber Lake High School coach, started laughing.

“It reminds me of when he played quarterback and it was like jumping in the middle,” Gimbel said. “SDSU also played. Whenever I see him run the ball like that, it’s like I’m watching the high school kid in front of me do the same thing.”

BAVARO DIDN’T SEE IT Neither is playing, but when ESPN reached out to him and told him Bisaccia had mentioned his name to Kraft, Bavaro did his research before returning the call.

That’s because he had never heard of Kraft before receiving the news.

“Everyone looks good in the highlight reels, but he looks really good,” Bavaro said. “I’m surprised I’ve never heard of him before. I don’t watch much football anymore. People tell me things, but I had never heard of him before.”

In nine NFL seasons, Bavaro won two Super Bowls and was twice named to the NFL’s All-Pro and Pro Bowl teams.

But it was his reputation as a tough guy that stuck with him more than his 351 career catches and 39 touchdowns. Early in his career, someone gave him the nickname “Rambo,” after Sylvester Stallone’s rough personality. Bavaro suffered a broken jaw in the first half of a game against the Saints in 1986 – but then came back and caught a touchdown pass in the second half.

“I look at Tucker Kraft and see the game of football the way I was raised to,” Bavaro said. “And I recognize a fellow traveler on the way to playing real football. I’ll watch the boy now.”

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