Packers need to keep working on their backup plan for David Bakhtiari
When healthy, Green Bay Packers left tackle David Bakhtiari is the best there is at his position. The problem is he hasn't been able to stay healthy since signing a massive, four-year, $92 million contract extension back in 2020. The crux of his issues is a torn ACL suffered a few weeks after signing the […]
When healthy, Green Bay Packers left tackle David Bakhtiari is the best there is at his position. The problem is he hasn't been able to stay healthy since signing a massive, four-year, $92 million contract extension back in 2020.
The crux of his issues is a torn ACL suffered a few weeks after signing the extension. Since then, Bakhtiari has battled complications over the course of his recovery and an emergency appendectomy also caused him to miss three games last year.
There's zero question the Packers offensive line is better with Bakhtiari on the field and the same goes for the offense, as a whole.
“Everybody in here knows we’re a better offense, we’re a better football team, when he’s out there on the field,” Packers head coach Matt LaFleur said Tuesday. “He’s one of the elite offensive linemen, left tackles, in the game. We’ve got to do whatever we can to get him to Sunday. He’s got enough experience, enough reps that he doesn’t have to be out there every day.”
Fortunately, Bakhtiari is the healthiest he's been in years heading into 2023, but that hasn't kept the Packers from regimenting his practice schedule. And even that hasn't kept Bakhtiari completely clean – he exited Tuesday's practice on the first snap of a two-snap drill, per reports. He looked fine in the locker room, but as LaFleur stated, the Packers are going to be as cautious with him as possible.
When the three-time Pro Bowler doesn't practice the Packers typically have Yosh Nijman at left tackle and Zach Tom at right tackle. The other day, with a healthy Bakhtiari, the Packers had Tom at center with the 1s and Nijman at right tackle.
That makes all the sense in the world, especially when considering how much the Packers like to cross-train their offensive linemen, but at the same time, the Packers would be wise to keep both Nijman and Tom on the outside in case something crops up with Bakhtiari, again.
The Packers can't count on him to stay healthy for the entire 2023 season. If he does, that should be considered a bonus. It's nothing on Bakhtiari – the post-surgery complications aren't his fault. There's simply been too much inconsistency over the last couple of years and the Packers have to take that into account when figuring out what to do with the offensive line.
Locking Tom in at right tackle and getting Nijman in as the swing is easily the best-case scenario for this team. That way, if Bakhtiari goes down, the Packers won't miss a beat when they plug Nijman in.
Yes, in a perfect world, the Packers' best front five probably consists of Bakhtiari, Elgton Jenkins, Tom, Jon Runyan Jr., and then Nijman from left-to-right, but as we know, this world is far from perfect. The Packers need to make sure they're doing everything they can to guard themselves from said imperfections.
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Featured image via Eric Hartline-USA TODAY Sports
