Tucker Kraft Reveals He Laughed, Didn’t Cry, at Romeo Doubs’ Viral ACL Eulogy
Tucker Kraft’s 2025 season ended on his 25th birthday, in the worst possible way. The Green Bay Packers tight end tore his ACL during a 16-13 loss to the Carolina Panthers on Nov. 2, and the diagnosis landed on the same day he turned 25. When it happened, the mood in the Packers’ building reportedly sank fast. Then-teammate Romeo Doubs made it worse, in the best way, with a live-TV eulogy nobody’s forgotten.
Doubs, visibly emotional while discussing Kraft’s injury with reporters, fumbled for the right words and landed on this instead: “Tucker is in a better place now.” The line took off online, and months later, Kraft finally told the story of watching it happen from his couch.
“I was sitting on my couch, leg propped up somewhere, and someone was on their phone and they showed me that, and I just lost it,” Kraft said on “Up & Adams.” “I thought that was so funny.”
Kay Adams posted the exchange on X on August 4, 2026, framing it with a simple question: after his season ended early, did Kraft cry? Her answer — no, he cracked up laughing after Doubs’ eulogized him —
Tucker Kraft's season ended early last year.. think he cried?
No.. he cracked up laughing after Romeo Doubs eulogized him. 😂
CRACKED UP. pic.twitter.com/393sUpDvZF
— Kay Adams (@heykayadams) August 4, 2026
How Severe Was the Injury?
The injury itself was no laughing matter at the time. Kraft was carted off Lambeau Field in the third quarter after taking a hit to the knee while blocking, and coach Matt LaFleur told reporters afterward that it “didn’t look good.” Tests the next day confirmed the torn ACL, according to ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler and Adam Schefter. Kraft had surgery roughly 10 days later.
At the time he went down, Kraft was in the middle of a breakout year. He had 32 receptions for 489 yards and six touchdowns through eight games — the best marks by a tight end in Packers history on that pace, and production that made him the only tight end in the league with 30-plus catches, 475-plus yards and six-plus touchdowns when the injury hit.
| Season | Games | Receptions | Yards | Touchdowns |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 17 | 50 | 707 | 7 |
| 2025 (injury-shortened) | 8 | 32 | 489 | 6 |
Where Kraft’s Recovery Stands Now
Doubs has since moved on, signing with the New England Patriots in free agency, but the moment he created stuck around as a kind of dark-humor touchstone for Kraft’s rehab. The Packers activated Kraft from the physically unable to perform list on Aug. 1, and he returned to practice for the first time since the injury, according to ClutchPoints. LaFleur said the club is easing him in deliberately, keeping him out of full team drills at first before folding him into individual and walk-through work.
Kraft has stayed cautious in how he talks about the timeline. “I don’t want anyone to get their expectations too high. I’m not going to be doing anything too crazy here for a while,” he said after his return to the field, according to Packers-focused outlet PackersTalk. He’s targeting a Week 1 opener at Minnesota on Sept. 13 without any limitations, and LaFleur has floated Aug. 26 — a joint practice against the Arizona Cardinals — as a potential checkpoint, contingent on Kraft clearing the necessary benchmarks, per ClutchPoints.
There’s also a contract dimension hanging over the recovery. Kraft is entering the final year of his rookie deal, and both sides have acknowledged talks toward an extension, though a source told ESPN those discussions remain in the early stages. Green Bay has already re-signed Jayden Reed, Christian Watson and Devonte Wyatt this offseason, and Kraft appears next in that line — a fact reported by multiple outlets but not yet finalized, so it stays framed as a expectation rather than a done deal.
Why the Doubs Moment Mattered
It’s a small thing, a slip of the tongue turned meme, but it says something about how Kraft has handled a genuinely brutal setback. A torn ACL on your birthday, in the middle of a career year, is the kind of injury that can sour a locker room and a season. Instead, Kraft found something to laugh at in the darkest week of his career, and that attitude appears to have carried into a rehab that’s reportedly ahead of typical ACL timelines — doctors have compared his progress to a player already a year removed from surgery, according to multiple outlets that have spoken with Kraft directly.
Green Bay is banking on that recovery holding. With Josh Jacobs entering another year in the backfield and the receiver room thinner after Doubs’ departure, Jordan Love may lean on his tight end more than ever in 2026 — assuming the knee that “looks spectacular,” in Kraft’s own words, keeps checking every box between now and September.
