GREEN BAY — There’s never a good time for the short week “Thursday Night Football” forces upon your football team. 

But it’s especially problematic if you’re the Green Bay Packers, who were on the verge of possibly having to play their star tight end Tucker Kraft at offensive tackle — yes, you read that right — after running out of healthy linemen on Sunday.

And given their injury situation coming out of their 20-17 overtime victory over the New York Jets at the Meadowlands, head coach Matt LaFleur and his staff will have their work cut out for them piecing together an offensive line for their matchup with the Atlanta Falcons at Lambeau Field.

“We’ve got to do it,” LaFleur said. “It is what it is. Those are the circumstances.”

And those circumstances are pretty dire.

First, the unit lost starting right tackle Zach Bako-Bewele to what appeared to be as serious right knee injury, one that led LaFleur to say that the prognosis “doesn’t look good.” Bako-Bewele, who suffered a partially torn patellar tendon in that same knee last December, was injured on the game’s third play and had to be carted off the field with an air cast on his right leg.

Then, the line lost starting left guard Aaron Banks to a toe injury after he’d played 22 snaps in his return to the starting lineup after missing the opener with the persistent tendinitis in his left knee that had plagued him throughout the offseason and training camp.

And, finally, the next-man-up at left guard, Donovan Jennings, suffered a hand injury and departed after 14 snaps, leaving Burton as the last man standing.

They finished the game with Jordan Morgan at left tackle, rookie Jager Burton at left guard, Sean Rhyan at center, Jacob Monk at right guard and Anthony Belton at right tackle.

And when Monk went to the medical staff while the defense was on the field to be checked for a possible neck stinger, LaFleur and the coaches talked about playing Kraft at tackle since the other linemen on the 53-man roster (John Williams and Travis Glover) were inactive.

“There’s a lot of things that we don’t control, but we do control how we respond. And guys are going to have to step up,” LaFleur said. “That’s just the way it is.

“We’re going to have to do a great job coaching them up. I loved the fact that our guys that stepped into the game whether it was Jager, Belton coming in, and just competing and battling.”

The Packers did not practice on Monday, but they had to issue an injury report because of the abbreviated week. They estimated that Bako-Bewele, Banks and Jennings would not have participated had the team practiced.

If they start the same line against the Falcons that finished the game over the Jets, they’d have to add at least one lineman and maybe more to the roster.

In addition to Williams and Glover, the Packers have four offensive linemen on their practice squad: Dillon Wade, Dalton Cooper, Josh Gesky and Cordell Volson.

Volson, signed last week, started 48 games in three seasons with the Cincinnati Bengals from 2022 to ’24 before missing all of last season with a shoulder injury he suffered in training camp.

He signed a one-year deal with and a maximum value of $4.215 million and $2.5 million in guaranteed money in free agency with the Tennessee Titans in March, but the Titans cut him at the end of camp.

“We’ll see about the injuries, [but] obviously we’ve got a short week coming, [so] you’ve got to just keep going,” quarterback Jordan Love said. “Football’s always the next-man-up mentality. You’ve got to keep playing, so the mindset is just to keep going. People need to step up when guys go down.”

Meanwhile, the Packers listed wide receiver Jayden Reed, who was carted off the field with a neck injury one play before Bako-Bewele’s departure, as an estimated non-participant, too. ESPN reported that Reed’s injury was actually to his back, but that was not how the Packers described it on their official injury report.

LaFleur said that Reed, who suffered a broken collarbone during the Packers’ Week 2 game last year against Washington, spent the night in a hospital near the Meadowlands and was set to return to Green Bay on Monday. It’s unclear how long Reed will be sidelined.

“That’s my brother,” wide receiver Christian Watson said of Reed immediately after the game “Super tough to see that, just to see him like that, in that state. Obviously praying everything went good, with everything at the hospital. As far as I’ve heard, it’s positive news so far. I’m just keeping him in my thoughts and prayers.

“I never want to see that for anybody on that field but especially someone that I consider a brother. I spend more time with J-Reed than I do my family. That’s my dawg.”

The Packers listed 11 total players on their initial injury report. Two others were listed as non-participants — defensive tackles Warren Brinson (calf), who has not played yet this season and Anthony Campbell (ankle), who left the game after playing nine snaps on defense.

Three other players were listed as limited: Cornerback Brandon Cisse (teeth), linebacker Edgerrin Cooper (shoulder) and defensive tackle Javon Hargrave (knee/concussion).

Wide receiver Bo Melton (neck) and cornerback Benjamin St-Juste (hamstring) were both estimated to be full participants.

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