Veldheer Saves Day When Bulaga Can’t Play
GREEN BAY, Wis. – Jared Veldheer was relaxing at home, tuned into the pregame show for the AFC playoff game between Kansas City and Houston, when he heard the news.
Starting right tackle Bryan Bulaga was sick, afflicted with the same illness that had been rolling through the Green Bay Packers’ locker room for more than a week. The Packers added him to the injury report as questionable about 5 hours before kickoff.
“I got in my car and got down here as soon as I could to check out what was going on,” Veldheer said. “It was something that has been going around. I had the same kind of stomach virus, and that thing is awful. I know what it’s like on that thing. Like, he can’t function. So, I got it through my head pretty quick that I had to be ready for this ballgame.”
That thinking became reality during pregame warmups.
“We ran a play and (Bulaga) kind of turned and motioned for Jared to come in,” quarterback Aaron Rodgers said. “At that point, I figured it was going to be tough for him to go.”
In an amazing turn of events, Veldheer went from retiring during OTAs with the New England Patriots, to changing his mind and asking for his release in late November, to joining the Packers on Nov. 27, to starting an NFC Divisional playoff game on Sunday. Veldheer got the job done and so did the Packers, beating Seattle 28-23 to advance to next week’s NFC Championship Game at San Francisco.
“Jared stepped in and did a great job, he really did,” Rodgers said. “I was teasing him in the third quarter during a long TV timeout, I said, ‘You were retired this year and here you are starting a playoff game.’ And he said, ‘Hey, I was at your first game in the stands.’ It’s funny how life is sometimes. But we’re really happy to have him and he’s been really good for us.”
Video: Rodgers on Bulaga and Veldheer
That’s right. Veldheer was in the stands for the Packers’ season-opening victory at Chicago. On Sunday, a little more than four months later, he was in the starting lineup for the biggest game of the season.
The addition of Veldheer was yet another brilliant move by general manager Brian Gutekunst. Quality offensive tackles are hard to find – let alone quality offensive tackles that can serve as the equivalent of a fire extinguisher that can be accessed in case of emergency. But with Bulaga’s injury history, Gutekunst claimed Veldheer off waivers. That move paid off at Detroit – when Bulaga suffered a concussion in a must-win game that gave the Packers a first-round bye – and again against the Seahawks.
Veldheer is why a veteran is worth his weight in gold because he was able to step in even while Bulaga took the reps at practice all week. How did he do it?
“I’m lucky enough to go up against some good pass rushers on scout team,” Veldheer said. “I take those reps seriously. Going up against Preston (Smith) and Za’Darius (Smith) and Fack (Kyler Fackrell) and Rashan (Gary), those guys are all four different kind of rushers, and I see all of them during the course of the week. I just take those reps extremely seriously because those are my preparation for the game.”
It wasn’t all smooth sailing. On the first possession, Jadeveon Clowney beat Veldheer inside and leveled running back Aaron Jones for a loss of 4.
“That dude is a tough dude when you’re going as hard as you can to the right, and he decides to knife in on you,” he said with a smile.
But the hope for any coach is that he doesn’t have to deviate too far from the game plan because the backup can’t do his job without help. Veldheer did that, and that’s a big reason why the Packers are one game from the Super Bowl.
“It does so much for us,” coach Matt LaFleur said. “It allows us to run our offense and I thought he did a pretty darn good job. We’ll take a look at the film and really evaluate it, but at no time throughout the game was I ever fearful of a call. I thought he did an outstanding job.”
