Bakhtiari Calls Becoming Highest-Paid OL in NFL History ‘Special’
Money talks.
For David Bakhtiari, the money speaks loud and clear.
The Green Bay Packers rewarded their four-time All-Pro left tackle with a four-year contract extension on Saturday night that is the richest contract ever given to an offensive lineman. According to a source, the total value of the deal, including this season, is $105.5 million, including incentives. The extension itself is worth $92 million and up to $94 million, meaning an average of $23 million and perhaps as much as $23.5 million.
According to NFL Network, it includes a $30 million signing bonus and a total of $30 million in roster bonuses due in March 2021, 2022 and 2023.
Clearly, there is prestige with being No. 1 in anything, and that includes No. 1 in contract.
“Yeah, that was something that I’ve been chasing for a while,” Bakhtiari said after a 24-20 victory over the Jacksonville Jaguars on Sunday. “Having the talks with my family, to have that monetary validation for all the work that I’ve put in really meant a lot. That was something that I can hold onto and have that title for the rest of my life. That is something that is special, that I’ve been chasing really ever since I got in the league. I have goals, very lofty, lofty ones. I always wanted to say that I was the highest-paid offensive lineman in NFL history and today I get to say that.”
After Saturday’s team meetings, Bakhtiari said he got a call from his agent, Mark Humenik of IHC Sports, telling Bakhtiari they needed to talk.
“That’s either good news or bad news,” Bakhtiari said.
It was good news. Very good news.
“The one thing that I had trusted him with,” Bakhtiari said, “and I told him I was going to ask this question before I’d ever sign was, he needs to be able to confidently say that this contract is deserving for the highest-paid offensive lineman. I remember I explicitly asked him and he told me, ‘Yes, it is.’ I said, ‘OK, then let’s do it.’”
Bakhtiari said he signed the contract at 11 p.m. Saturday. He called it a “weight lifted off your shoulders” to sign his second four-year extension since being a fourth-round draft pick in 2013.
“I’m really happy for him,” quarterback and best friend Aaron Rodgers said. “I was privy to some of the conversations that were going on and was wondering where we were going to get to before the end of this year. “Obviously, wrapping him up seemed to be of some benefit to the organization long term, best left tackle in the game, future Hall of Famer, probably. Very happy for him. He’s having a big year, man. He’s got a great woman he got engaged with and got a long-term extension that pays him the way he deserves to be paid. He’s having a hell of a year, he’s a special player and he’s a great locker room guy. Pretty happy for him.”
Bakhtiari’s payday came on the eve of his return to the lineup after missing three games with what was called a chest injury. In reality, he said it was a broken rib.
As he’s done throughout his career, Bakhtiari toughed it out.
“I’ve got this pad little pad thing, had a flap. Rub some dirt on it. I mean, there’s only so much,” he said. “You can protect it, but other than that … The one thing was to make sure I was safe, and once we were good on that. I mean, you just have to, I’ve got to be able to play and play well. not put myself or anyone else out there in harm. Once we got to that point, we got the green light on both sides, and I was just excited to get back out there. because I don’t particularly enjoy sitting on the sidelines.”
Sunday’s victory was part of a big weekend for Bakhtiari, one that will be capped by more than a can of celebratory beer on Sunday night.
It will be a well-deserved celebration. Of the 32 starting left tackles, 19 were selected in the first round. Another five went in the second, Bakhtiari is an outlier as a fourth-round pick. The Packers didn’t necessarily view him as a left tackle coming out of Colorado. But the man who replaced Bryan Bulaga in the starting lineup in his rookie training camp has built himself into an elite performer.
Bakhtiari “worked himself into an elite left tackle,” general manager Brian Gutekunst said.
Gutekunst visited the Colorado campus during the 2012 season and came away impressed with Bakhtiari’s play and work ethic on a really bad team.
“We really probably had him ranked much higher than actually where we ended up drafting him,” Gutekunst said. “We really thought he had a chance to be a good player in the National Football League. Did we know that he was going to become an elite left tackle? I don’t know if we could have predicted that or we would have taken him a lot sooner.”
The Packers signed Bakhtiari to a four-year extension just before the 2016 opener at Jacksonville. And they did it again just before Sunday’s game against Jacksonville.
Asked what he would have told a teenage version of himself had he been told he’d be the highest-paid lineman in NFL history, Bakhtiari got emotional.
“You’re a liar. You can’t ever have something, you don’t really know how to measure someone’s heart, someone’s passion, someone’s work ethic, and that teenager wasn’t the most physically gifted but he had everything else that pushed him to be where he is today. That’s what I would have looked that teenager in the face and told.”
