David Bakhtiari has Knee Cleaned Up, Packers still Optimistic of his Return
By Paul Bretl
After the Green Bay Packers activated David Bakhtiari off the PUP list on November 10th, he would practice the following day in a limited capacity. However, Bakhtiari hasn’t participated since then.
Naturally, many wondered if there had been a setback; while following the Minnesota game, Aaron Rodgers would call Bakhtiari’s status “unknown” — leaving us with more questions than answers.
Throughout this entire process, Matt LaFleur has made it clear that Bakhtiari is doing everything in his power to return and that their goal is to make sure that he’s 100 percent ready to take the field.
"“It’s day to day, it’s part of the process, he’s coming off a major injury. We’re trying to put him in the best possible position for when he does return, so that’s he good to go,” LaFleur said last Thursday via Packers Wire."
While those responses didn’t exactly provide us with much insight, we now have some additional clarity on Bakhtiari’s status with the Green Bay Packers.
NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero reported on Tuesday that Bakhtiari recently had arthroscopic surgery to clean up his knee. However, despite the procedure, there is still optimism that he will return for the stretch run. Ian Rapoport would also report that there is hope that he will be back in December some time.
This once deep offensive line unit finds themselves a bit thin right now. We don’t know when Josh Myers will return, Elgton Jenkins is done for the season, and of course, a Bakhtiari is still sidelined.
That means for the time being, the offensive line configuration will be Yosh Nijman, Jon Runyan, Lucas Patrick, Royce Newman, and Billy Turner. As I mentioned in a recent article, this group played one game together earlier this season in Cincinnati, allowing two sacks and nine pressures, while Aaron Jones and AJ Dillon ran for 133 yards on 22 carries per PFF ($$).
While this offensive line group can certainly be good enough to win games, it’s hard to see them finding the same dominance that they did a season ago, and there will certainly be some lumps taken with so much inexperience up front.
To help mitigate those mistakes, Matt LaFleur and Aaron Rodgers can help by leaning on the run and the quick passing games, as well as utilizing the tight ends as additional blockers and to help chip. But ultimately, there are going to be times when these players are on an island, and they’ll need to win their matchups or create those running lanes.
For a Green Bay Packers team with Super Bowl aspirations, getting David Bakhtiari back is a must. Not only will he provide stability and bolster the entire offensive line, but his return will also help open up the entire offense as well with LaFleur not having to worry about any limitations at left tackle.
The good news is that it does sound like Bakhtiari will still return this season; it’s just going to take some additional time.
"“Him being out there from what I’ve seen of him in practice so far, there’s flashes where he looks great,” said OL coach Adam Stenavich via Sports Illustrated. “It’s just going to be a matter of can he sustain that for a game? That’s going to be the hardest thing because he didn’t have camp, he didn’t have anything built up. Practices are limited right now. So, that’s going to be his biggest challenge is getting to a place where he can sustain that performance for an entire game. That’s part of what we evaluate right now and that’s probably going to be probably the biggest question.”"