David Bakhtiari‘s NFL path changed on New Year’s Eve 2020. Not only did the Packers see their Super Bowl LV hopes affected by an injury sustained in practice, they have been unable to rely on their All-Pro left tackle since.
Once again set to miss most of a season due to knee trouble, Bakhtiari confirmed he will not play again this year. But the 11th-year blocker indicated he does expect to play in 2024. Bakhtiari stopped short of confirming he would be a Packer again, per ESPN’s Rob Demovsky, as his persistent injury issues could prompt Green Bay to move on after this year.
The ACL tear Bakhtiari sustained nearly three years ago led to three surgeries between the December 2020 tear and the start of Packers training camp in 2022. He went through a fourth knee operation last week and has another scheduled for this year in Chicago, per the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s Tom Silverstein. A training camp 2024 return represents Bakhtiari’s goal.
Bakhtiari said his 2023 knee procedures are not connected to his ACL but address a femoral condyle cartilage issue. This trouble does stem from the 2020 injury, but after doctors hoped it would not become a problem for the All-Pro, a decision was made not to address this ancillary issue via another surgery at the time, per Demovsky. This lingering issue was enough to keep Bakhtiari off the field in Weeks 2 and 3, and after the Packers placed him on IR ahead of their Week 4 Lions matchup, news emerged indicating this problem would sideline him for the season’s remainder.
After missing the Packers’ two playoff games in 2020, Bakhtiari spent part of 2021 on Green Bay’s PUP list. The team activated the high-priced LT in mid-November that year but did not deploy him in a game until a meaningless Week 18 contest. The Packers used Bakhtiari on 27 plays in that season-ender in Detroit, despite the team having locked down home-field advantage. The ramp-up effort backfired. Bakhtiari did not play in Green Bay’s divisional-round game two weeks later. He was ready to go in time for Week 1 of the 2022 season, but knee trouble and an appendectomy led to six absences last year.
When on the field last season, Bakhtiari resumed his place as one of the game’s best O-linemen. ESPN’s pass block win rate metric ranked Bakhtiari second among tackles and tops among left-siders. But last month’s setback offered another reminder of how damaging that 2020 injury has been for the former fourth-round success story.
Bakhtiari, 32, said (via Demovsky) he and GM Brian Gutekunst have discussed his future. The Packers gave their top lineman a then-record-setting deal — four years, $92MM — during the 2020 season. That deal has not panned out, and if Bakhtiari is in the team’s plans for 2024 (the contract’s final season), he will need to almost definitely rework it. Due to past restructures, next season calls for a $40.6MM Bakhtiari cap number. No void years are present in this deal. It would cost the Packers more than $19MM in dead money to cut Bakhtiari, but that number could be spread across two years if the team uses the post-June 1 designation.
The Packers only have one big-ticket contract on their offense — Elgton Jenkins‘ four-year, $68MM deal — and the team will be rid of the Aaron Rodgers dead money by 2024. But Bakhtiari’s Packers future is in doubt after this latest bout of knee pain. How he responds from his latest round of surgeries will represent the next check-in regarding this long-running situation.
With all the wear and tear on this knee, he likely is developing some pretty severe chondromalacia which can impact the femoral condyles. Then if you were to add in a femoral condyle fracture, he just has quite the road ahead of him because that arthritis will keep coming back and each time with a vengence.
Post June 1 cut, then a 1 year deal with the Jets for one last run at a SB with Rodgers.
I sure hope so. The rest of the league enjoys watching the Jets throw money out the window (with no Superbowl in sight).
It’s hilarious to me when peoplesay the Jets would still be doing bad if Rodgers were under center. 1-3 would so obviously be 3-1, heading into a sure win against Denver (which obviously isn’t without ARod). Should have beaten NE with Wilson anyway since that hail Mary should’ve been caught. They deserved the game over KC if not for two blatantly terrible calls and probably would’ve ran away with both if Rodgers were playing.
Add in that they should be 3-1 with one of the worst OLs in the league and somehow signing Bakhtiari would be a waste? Get real. Hating for the sake of hating with no logic behind statements is just silly.
When teams invest in old and injury-prone players for skilled positions without adding younger talent to the OL, this exact situation is likely to happen. The rest of the league could see this coming, but not delusional Jets’ fans.
Yeah, and everyone also predicted a freak injury that’s only occurred to 3 QBs in the past 20 years, right?
He can join Becton on the IR next season then!
Who knows, maybe Bakhtiari still can give something next year. Highly unlikely, sure, but why not try? And yes, the GM is none too wise.
Stick a fork in him, he’s done after rehabbing for 3 years. Just let him go and let’s move on.
Must be those grass fields
Am I understanding this right? That a decision was made relatively soon after the ACL injury to NOT address this other problem? And that is what the last..2 years..of setbacks are about?
Give the Packers credit for having a QB ready to step in when Rodgers was through but why didn’t they take that same approach with Bakhtiari? They had 13 picks in the last draft and completely ignored their OL.
They also took Myers overs Humphrey a few years ago too.
The GM is not a smart man.
Cut him. Can’t get on the field, no contract. Enough of that BS.
If there was little or no dead money tied to doing it, sure. But it’s not a smart financial move to eat all that just to part ways right now. He’s on IR, and that’s the only logical thing at this point. Even when they do move on, which realistically won’t be until they can designate him a post June (2024) cut, the cap hit will be painful enough..and that’s the “best case scenario” they have.