David Bakhtiari and Packers Reportedly $4M per Year Off in Contract Talks

As reported by Rob Demovsky of ESPN, the Green Bay Packers and David Bakhtiari are about $4 million per year off in contract talks.

Even before the 2020 season had begun, many have been focused on the Green Bay Packers’ 2021 offseason. With an already tight salary cap, they have several high-profile free agents to tend to, including David Bakhtiari, Aaron Jones, Corey Linsley, Kevin King, and Jamaal Williams, with Kenny Clark having been a part of that group before receiving his extension over the summer.

Now the big question is, who’s next? And presumably, that would be Bakhtiari and for good reasons.

For starters, he plays one of the most important positions in football, which is protecting the quarterback’s blindside, and he’s the best at it. The four-time All-Pro has been extremely durable over his career, missing only six games in his NFL career, while making all 16 starts in five of his seven NFL seasons. And, of course, when on the field, he’s been excellent.

According to Pro Football Focus (subscription required), Bakhtiari has taken 2,850 pass-blocking snaps over the last four seasons and allowed just 11 sacks during that span. Most recently, by ESPN’s pass-block win rate metric that measures how often an offensive lineman can hold a block for 2.5 seconds or longer, Bakhtiari would rank first in the NFL among all tackles.

So as you can imagine, at just 29-years-old next season, Bakhtiari will be in store for a big payday. However, according to ESPN’s Rob Demovsky, when it comes to current contract negotiations, the Green Bay Packers and Bakhtiari aren’t quite on the same page:

"“According to a source, the sides were still nearly $4 million per year apart. Bakhtiari almost certainly is seeking to exceed the $22 million per year that Houston’s Laremy Tunsil makes as the NFL’s highest-paid tackle. He also has said he wants to finish his career where it started.”"

Now, just because the two parties aren’t agreeing at the moment doesn’t mean a deal won’t get done. Rather, I see this as part of the negotiating process. I mean, Brian Gutekunst made it very clear back in January that the Packers’ intentions were to extend Clark, but a deal didn’t get finalized until training camp.

While throughout the Ted Thompson era, we didn’t really see the Packers offer a third contract to an offensive lineman, and just this past offseason, Gutey made the decision not to bring back Bryan Bulaga, at this point, I’d be shocked if a new deal isn’t worked out. Whether it be in a week or in a few months, my expectation is that Bakhtiari will be back.

Even with Green Bay’s other pending free agents and the fact that they aren’t going to have much cap space in 2021, Bakhtiari plays far too important of a position, and he’s just way too good at it to not bring back. With a current Super Bowl contender and perhaps Jordan Love taking over in the not so distant future, who else would you want protecting your quarterback?