Packers Lose 5-Time All-Pro for Remainder of Season

The injury news coming out of the Green Bay Packers organization on Friday wasn’t unexpected, but it was crushing all the same.

Five-time All-Pro David Bakhtiari confirmed that he will miss the remainder of the season due to a knee injury. The left tackle spoke to media members for more than half an hour, his main points summed up in a social media post afterwards by Tom Silverstein of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

“#Packers LT David Bakhtiari just addressed reporters on his medical condition,” Silverstein wrote. “The takeaways: needs one more surgery and is out for season. Doctors are confident it’s a cartilage issue that they suspected was there but couldn’t prove it was the issue. Hopes to be ready by camp.”

David Bakhtiari’s Newest Injury Could Mark End of Run with Packers

GettyGreen Bay Packers left tackle David Bakhtiari is out for the remainder of the 2023 season with a knee injury.

Bakhtiari first injured the knee in question on the final day of 2020. The ACL tear knocked him out for the remainder of that campaign and he hasn’t been truly healthy since.

The left tackle missed 16 of 17 games the following year and will play in only one game in 2023. Bakhtiari’s healthiest season post-injury was 2022, during which he started 11 contests and sat out six.

The ACL injury also marked the end of Bakhtiari’s run of five years as either a first- or second-team All-Pro. It is possible that it will also mean the end of his time in green and gold, as Bakhtiari’s salary cap number is nearly $40.5 million in 2024. That’s a ton of money to pay for anyone who isn’t a quarterback, particularly when the player in question will have appeared in just 13 of a possible 51 regular season games over the previous three years.

Bakhtiari understands that his time in Green Bay could be at an end due to financial reasons, which he addressed during his press conference Friday.

“Bakhtiari said the hope is that he can be back by the start of training camp next year,” ESPN’s Rob Demovsky wrote on X. “He’s fully aware of the business side of this and that the Packers could move on, but he said he’s had open and honest talks with GM Brian Gutekunst.”

Green Bay can save around $21.5 million by cutting or trading Bakhtiari next summer, though the team will still have to foot a bill of more than $19 million to address the left tackle’s dead cap number.

Packers Should Pursue Trade for Veteran Left Tackle

GettyLeft tackle Jonah Williams of the Cincinnati Bengals.

Bakhtiari’s confirmation that his season is finished allows Green Bay to pursue a left tackle in free agency, which is probably the right move.

Rasheed Walker, a seventh-round pick in 2022, has been okay as Bakhtiari’s replacement. However, the Packers’ offense has stalled in each of the last two weeks, in large part because the offensive line as a unit has struggled to keep pressure off quarterback Jordan Love.

Of course, not all of that is Walker’s fault. Starting left guard Elgton Jenkins has also been out since Week 2 and several other members of the unit have been dinged up early in the year. But the left tackle is the tentpole position when it comes to protecting quarterbacks and Walker has surrendered 2 sacks and been whistled for 3 penalties across just three starts at the position, per Pro Football Focus.

Good left tackles are hard to come by, and those who do exist tend to get paid a lot of money. There are only a couple of players who can offer the Packers a meaningful upgrade at the position and are also potential trade block candidates.

Former first-round pick Jonah Williams of the Cincinnati Bengals asked for a trade over the summer after the team added Orlando Brown Jr., who took Williams’ job on the left side and pushed him to right tackle.

Garett Bolles of the Denver Broncos may also be a possibility, as his team is 1-3 with two games against the Kansas City Chiefs and one with the Buffalo Bills in the next five weeks, which could spell the end of any hope Denver has of a playoff run.