The future of left tackle David Bakhtiari is one of the most difficult questions to answer about the Green Bay Packers moving forward. And it's so tough that even general manager Brian Gutekunst doesn't know exactly what will happen.

During his end-of-season press conference, Gutekunst was pretty definitive about his intentions to keep running back Aaron Jones and cornerback Jaire Alexander on the roster in 2024. When asked about Bakhtiari, though, there's simply not a definitive answer to offer.

"We are still at the very beginning stages of looking at, you know, how we're going to move forward with all that," Gutekunst said. "Obviously, David has been through a really rough stretch with the injury stuff. He's going through a really major surgery, trying to get back to being able to play. We're monitoring that. I know he's working his tail off. Once we get down the road and see where he's at, health-wise, we'll kinda make those decisions."

Injury

The first step to know what will happen is the injury situation itself. Since David Bakhtiari torn his ACL on the last day of 2020, he played half a game in 2021, 11 games (alternating snaps in some of them) in 2022, and one game again in 2023.

Last season, he started against the Chicago Bears in week 1, but then had problems once again. He had a new major surgery, and his hope is that the new action will solve his problems for good.

"I hate it. I know the club hates it. It's just not a great situation for anyone to deal with," Bakhtiari said back in October. "The human side of it took a little of stress, a lot of time on my end, but the clarity is to know we finally know what the problem is, and we can address the problem. That's the, I guess, glass-half-full part of the scenario. So, that's where we're at. That's the pill I have to swallow."

Contract

The other big part of the decision is the contract. Over the last three years, Bakhtiari hasn't given the Packers an easy task. He has not been willing, for example, to add void years to his contract, which means that his 2024 cap hit is slated to be $39.994 million — his projected salary for 2024 is $21.4 million.

It's simply too much money to pay for a player who hasn't been able to stay on the field for so long. If Bakhtiari wants to be in Green Bay in 2024, he will certainly have to accept a paycut, or at least the parties will have to find a creative way to adjust his contract — just adding void years doesn't seem like a smart approach for the Packers.

Even if Bakhtiari is released, the Packers will still have $19.065 million in dead money — plus potentially $1.23 million from his injury protection, with a chance that the player would file an injury grievance. A trade would free up the Packers from these obligations, but it won't be easy to find a team willing to absorb the contract as it is.

David Bakhtiari has been an elite player for a decade for the Packers, but his injury situation and his contract put his future in Green Bay at risk.

Five potential scenarios for the Packers and David Bakhtiari

Left tackle has been in Green Bay since 2013