Tucker Kraft Camp Update — August 31: Full Participation at the Joint Practice

Tucker Kraft got all the way back this week. He took full participation at Wednesday's joint practice with Arizona — the stated goal of his return from a torn anterior cruciate ligament since coming off the physically-unable-to-perform list on July 30-first — and said, "I felt free out there today," per Wes Hodkiewicz at packers.com. On Sunday he was on the initial 53 with no injury designation, one of four tight ends, per Hodkiewicz.

The room around him was rebuilt in the same week. Green Bay signed tenth-year tight end Jonnu Smith on Saturday, per packers.com, which describes him as a 20 24 Pro Bowler with Miami; our 20 25 numbers have Smith at 38 catches for 222 yards and two touchdowns in 17 games with Pittsburgh. Luke Musgrave went to reserve/PUP on Sunday — out at least the season's first four games — with the neck injury that dates to June minicamp, per Evan Siegle at packers.com and Zach Kruse at Packers Wire. That is also a correction to our August 20-third episode, which listed Musgrave among tight ends resting the Denver game: he was on PUP with an injury, not resting. And the backups who had been taking the extra tight end work in August are gone — McCallan Castles and Thomas Yassmin among the waived/injured, per Siegle, with Drake Dabney and Messiah Swinson also off the roster, Swinson's release reported by Bill Huber and relayed by Vince Lovergine at FOX 11 in Green Bay.

Huber's cut-day read at Packers On SI is that Kraft has "blown through his rehab and appears ready to blow away the competition" — the beat's assessment, not a medical report. The hard facts are narrower: full participation Wednesday, a roster spot with no designation Sunday, and zero game snaps all preseason. He does not appear in any account of Friday's finale — Kyle McCord played the whole game and no starters appear in the beat's account of it, per Mike Spofford at packers.com — which answers our last episode's watch line on both ends: Green Bay saved the knee, and his practice participation didn't just hold through cutdown, it rose to full. The knee has been the swing variable in Kraft's profile since our June preview of his interrupted breakout, and August closes with everything answered but the one thing only a real game can answer: game speed, which now arrives when the games count. We'll check back as Week One comes into focus.

_Data via nflverse._