Getty David Bakhtiari, Packers
You never know. Maybe Packers left tackle David Bakhtiari fights through another round of surgeries on his left knee—he is at four in the last three years, and counting—and maybe we see No. 69 on the field again this year for the Packers. It’s a longshot, but possible.
Longtime Green Bay columnist Pete Dougherty, though, would not advise anyone to take odds on that happening. After 11 seasons, 131 games and nearly 9,000 snaps, Dougherty wrote this week that we’ve likely seen the last of Bakhtiari in the green-and-gold.
In his mailbag this week, Dougherty was asked whether he thought Bakhtiari had played his final game in Wisconsin.
“OK, let’s get right to it,” he wrote. “Yeah, I do. I don’t know that for a fact, but it sure looks like he’s done for the season based on the report last week that said he had one procedure last week and will have another in the coming weeks with the intention of it allowing him to play next season. I just don’t see any way the Packers bring him back. They’ve been through this for a couple of years since he tried returning from his ACL. I just can’t imagine they’d keep doing it. Time to move on.”
David Bakhtiari Can Still Play But …
Bakhtiari turned 33 at the end of last month, and even at his age, he has shown he can still be an elite blocker. He played 55 snaps in the season opener in Chicago, and earned an overall grade of 78.3 at Pro Football Focus, third on the team among offensive players. His pass-blocking—usually his strong suit—was exceptional, at 89.9.
Bakhtiari was having fun with the youthful Packers, the youngest team in the league. He was spotted several times during the win over the Bears trolling the local fans, starting the game by offering a one-fingered salute, then lying down to pose for a photo for angry Bears fans after a Packers touchdown.
Ah, but then came the return of the swollen knee. Bakhtiari had been working on a limited practice schedule—or, basically, no practice schedule—as a way to coddle his knee. He said there were some plusses and minuses to that.
“It’s bittersweet,” Bakhtiari told The Athletic. “There are some days I definitely do enjoy it … But there is a part of me, there’s a grind you go through with the guys, and there is still like fun, like, ‘Man I am f***ing sore and beat to s***. I’m tired as f***, and I’m still locking you dudes down? And I’m old? Like, hell yeah.’ There’s like that other dynamic to it.”
Ultimately, he could not go in Week 2 in Atlanta, and despite a lenient practice schedule—which is to say, no practice schedule—designed to coddle his knee, he wound up back under the knife. Bakhtiari has played just 13 games in the last three seasons.
Packers Would Be Better Off Moving On
Now, couldn’t he come back to the Packers anyway? Would he really want to go elsewhere, and would Green Bay be OK with him bolting?
Dougherty said that, after dealing with the ups and downs of Bakhtiari’s knee for three years, the Packers would rather that be someone else’s problem. And that’s if Bakhtiari does, indeed, choose to play again.
“Even if he could be had on the cheap – and I also can’t imagine he’d play for anything close to the NFL minimum – I don’t see how they’d do it,” Dougherty wrote. “The risk that either he won’t be able to play, or that he’ll play some games and then won’t be able to go, is way too great. It’s time to thank him for his excellent play and move on.
“There’s nothing in the way Brian Gutekunst has conducted business that makes me think there’s any chance Bakhtiari will be back next year.”