Cory's Corner: Play The Waiting Game With Bakh

David Bakhtiari has been the elephant in the room this offseason. 

The word on the Packers All-Pro left tackle has been mum. Bakhtiari tore his ACL in practice on December 31, 2020. He had surgery but as he recounted to our Aaron Nagler, “The only way I can describe it, it was like I had a water balloon in my knee. When you bend it, it shoots out everywhere and the problem with that is it basically shuts off. Fluid gets into places. It’s just uncomfortable.”

Bakhtiari, 30, played only 27 snaps last year — which was the first year he didn’t tally at least 96 percent of the offensive snaps in his nine-year pro career. 

It’s already mid-June and Bakhtiari still hasn’t practiced. Obviously Aaron Rodgers would be more at ease if Bakh could block his blind side, especially because he was an All-Pro in 2018 and 2020. 

So where does that leave Bakhtiari? I don’t know. I’ve heard plenty of people say that this is the time for Green Bay to trade him. If he can’t play for the team that drafted him in the fourth round out of the University of Colorado, why would he be able to play for another team? 

The best option is not to push it. It’s great that there is nothing structurally wrong with the knee, but if doctors and medical personnel cannot gain control of the pesky knee fluid, I’m not sure what the answer is. As a left tackle, he is regularly asked to have good lateral movement as he prevents quarterback hunters from burying Green Bay’s future Hall of Famer. How good can your lateral movement be when you have a water balloon around your knee?

Bakhtiari only has a cap hit of $13.4 million this year but he also has a dead cap hit of $35.8 million. The Packers have been able to get under the salary cap by the hair of their teeth, but they cannot swallow $35.8 million. 

Nobody wants to hear this, but the answer is more time. The Packers really don’t have a choice but to let time do its work. The most important thing though, is that Green Bay and Bakhtiari cannot get antsy. He may feel like he is able to play by going 80 percent through non-padded drills, but what’s the value if he must deal with tremendous swelling the next morning?

There is no argument that Bakhtiari has been one of the best left tackles in the league the last several years. This team is not as good without a healthy Bakh playing that cornerstone position. Pro Football Focus has Green Bay’s offensive line ranked No. 5 and that’s with huge injury question marks for Bakhtiari and Elgton Jenkins. 

The good news is that the offensive line is deep. Yosh Nijman proved that he can play and might be the best player that plenty of people have never heard of. With Brian Gutekunst’s track record of drafting offensive linemen, don’t count out rookie Sean Rhyan to develop into something special. 

So what does that mean? You’re not going to want to hear this, but the Packers can afford to wait a little. There’s no use in forcing the veteran into playing if his injury might potentially cause Rodgers to get injured himself. 

It’s OK to wait, it’s not OK to panic just yet.