Packers’ David Bakhtiari Explains Surgery, Why He Wants to Keep Playing
GREEN BAY, Wis. – Last week, Green Bay Packers left tackle David Bakhtiari had a fourth surgery on the knee originally injured on Dec. 31, 2020. A fifth surgery – a major one that will end his 2023 season after just one game – is on the horizon.
Why? Why would a five-time All-Pro player who’s made plenty of money want to put himself through the pain of another surgery and the frustration of another prolonged rehab?
“Because I’m different. I have an unparalleled work ethic. I’m stubborn as f*** and I’m not going to let someone else write my story,” Bakhtiari said as part of a 40-minute conversation with reporters on Friday. “This is me just taking control of what I need to do. When I want to look back, do I want to look at the guy who got injured and was like ah, that’s good enough?
“If that’s me, then the future, older me is going to be pissed at the younger me like, ‘You f***ing quitter.’ I’m sure plenty of you guys don’t want to come into work anymore. I’m sure there’s been tough days at work, at home, where you’re like, ‘Screw it.’ But take that same mentality and you put it here. It just shows that’s also what makes us human beings special is our ability to preserve and to push. And I want to do that.”
So Bakhtiari, who turned 32 last week, wants to continue his football career.
Will it be with the Packers?
Bakhtiari is under contract for the 2024 season. His cap number is an astronomical $40.58 million. That’s high-level quarterback territory. As part of it, he is due a $20.2 million base salary, $700,000 workout bonus and $600,000 in weekly roster bonuses. The rest of it – about $19 million – is prorated signing bonus that is stuck on the cap whether Bakhtiari is with the Packers, some other team or at home with his family.
Because there’s not a big roster bonus due at the start of free agency, the Packers in theory could restructure Bakhtiari’s contract to turn base salary into playing-time and performance incentives to create cap space while showing continued patience with a player who remains superb when he’s been able to play.
Packers LT David Bakhtiari watches the game against the Saints.
Photo by Mark Hoffman/USA Today Sports Images
On the other hand, Bakhtiari said his “goal” is to be ready for the start of training camp. Unless general manager Brian Gutekunst is sold on Bakhtiari’s replacement, Rasheed Walker, by the end of the season, he might have to take a big swing in the draft at left tackle. At that point, would there be any reason to keep Bakhtiari, even if he were to agree to a pay cut?
“I know I have one more year left and, I think for me, I’m trying to make sure I attack this rehab like I’ve done with everything and just making sure that it’s behind me,” he said. “I think the No. 1 thing is proving the health. I don’t think the heart, the preparation, the skill was ever a question. I think it’s the availability and the health part has been the constant question over the years. For me, if we can cure that answer, I don’t see much of a problem with anything else.”
Bakhtiari is six days removed from arthroscopic surgery on the knee. That procedure was to “clean out and address” an upcoming surgery, which is much more significant. Hence, his hope to be ready for camp in 10 months.
The problem isn’t the ACL that Bakhtiari tore on Dec. 31, 2020, and hasn’t been. Rather, it’s cartilage and the lack of smoothness on his lateral femur.
“In my knee, it’s basically like sandpaper where it rubs. It’s just not smooth, which is creating a lot of fluid,” Bakhtiari said.
Bakhtiari played in Week 1 against Chicago, turning in a typically virtuoso performance. He walked off the field triumphantly that day. Little did he know that would be his last time this season.
“I feel like a sports car that can’t get out of second gear,” he said. “I can’t keep going, even though I know I can. A sports car can go, it’s just the clutch gets stuck, and then we have to go draw it back down. For me, I guess, the clarity and the fact I can finally put the issue to bed and fix it, that part feels good.”
The hope is this surgery will solve Bakhtiari’s issues, once and for all. Which begs this question: Why didn’t he have it done earlier?
David Bakhtiari walked triumphantly off Soldier Field after a Week 1 win.
Photo by Dan Powers/USA Today Sports Images
“We couldn’t singularly point to that variable because we had other variables in place, so we wanted to make sure can we clear out the forest and then see, ‘Is this the root of the problem?’ Now, we’re at the point that it’s like this the root of your problem,” Bakhtiari explained.
“My ACL has been fine,” he continued. “I totally trust it. It’s not been a problem. Never even really worn a knee brace. It’s been this other issue, but we couldn’t directly identify that that was the problem. And then now, fast forward, I think all of us, I would love on Jan. 7 of 2021 to have just been like, ‘Yeah, do it, because this is clearly this is what it is.’ But no one knew, and you don’t want to do more than you have to, and that was the recommendations of multiple doctors that we felt just stabilize it and let’s see.”
After playing in one game in 2021 and 11 games in 2022, Bakhtiari got to spend the entire offseason strengthening the knee and “putting on armor,” as he put it. He arrived at training camp feeling good and moving well. As camp progressed, he practiced less and less. He didn’t practice at all the week before the Chicago game.
Now, the question is whether that will be his last game with the Packers. Or his last game, period.
A long ordeal waits. As someone in the organization told him, you can’t eat an elephant in one bite. So, he’s as prepared as possible for what’s ahead – both for himself and his future with the team.
“I can only control what I can control,” he said. “I think making sure I attack the rehab, win the day, take the bites out of that elephant, finish the elephant, and then decide and see. They have decisions they need to make, what’s best for their franchise. I understood that the minute I got in here. And I’ve seen every face go. This face is going to go, too.”
A five-time All-Pro, Bakhtiari is one of the best offensive linemen of the era. Had the injury never happened, he might be looked at as a future Pro Football Hall of Famer. And, who knows, maybe that will be the case again if a fifth operation on his knee can be the first page of the next chapter of his career.
But individual accolades aren’t why Bakhtiari is going to go through a major surgery.
“I know I can still play and I can play at a high level and I want to give that to an organization,” he said. “To me, I think the greatest achievement other than the personal financial freedom that this game gives, is to win a Super Bowl. So that one, I would love to have. And that does definitely drive me.”
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