Getty David Bakhtiari had a "good practice" for the Packers in the first session for Week 2 on September 14.
The Green Bay Packers are still feeling good about All-Pro left tackle David Bakhtiari and how his knee is moving in practice despite a practice video that emerged the other day that appeared to show him limping around the field.
Bakhtiari was present and practicing (in a limited capacity) for the Packers in their first session for Week 2 as he continues to rehab from a significant ACL/knee injury that he sustained more than 600 days ago. His knees, however, were put under scrutiny after Cody Krupp of local Fox 11 News captured a video of what appeared to show Bakhtiari with a limp as he moved around after participating in one of his drills.
While some dismissed the video as a non-issue, others were concerned that it might be showing that Bakhtiari is struggling with overcompensation issues in his knees. That is to say, he has been favoring his non-injured knee — his right one — to compensate for the strength in his left one, which could end up causing problems in his stonger knee.
Packers head coach Matt LaFleur didn’t seemed concerned about it, though, when he was asked whether he thought Bakhtiari had been moving slow on Wednesday.
“It was a good practice [for him],” LaFleur said on September 15 before joking with a smile: “Maybe it was that pro glide.”
Bakhtiari Will Follow ‘Day-Off, Day-On’ Practice Routine
The Packers didn’t offer a ton of new information about their expectations for Bakhtiari and when he might return to the field, but LaFleur did elaborate a bit on how they were approaching practice with their injured five-time All-Pro. He also explained that Bakhtiari would not be practicing on Thursday and that it was no reason to be worried.
“Even when he is fully back in terms of into the lineup, he’s not going to practice three days in a row, so it’ll be a day on, a day off and a day on,” LaFleur said Thursday.
The Packers might find it difficult to take the same approach with someone like, say, Pro Bowl offensive lineman Elgton Jenkins, who is also working back from a major knee injury. But when it comes to Bakhtiari, they feel confident in the number of reps he has logged with their team over his veteran career and feel he doesn’t need a full week of practice to play at a high level for them, once he is given the green light to return.
“It does in a a lot of ways,” LaFleur said of how Bakhtiari’s experience helps with planning an ideal practice schedule for him. “He’s gotten a lot of reps [for us] and there’s not many people that can probably have a schedule like that, but I do believe, and we do believe as an organization that he is one of those guys.”