Bakhtiari’s Knee Injury Provides Ultimate What-If for Packers
Green Bay Packers left tackle David Bakhtiari is one of the best players in football when he is healthy.
That is as true today as it was on Dec. 30, 2020.
That’s the day before the world turned upside down for Bakhtiari and perhaps changed the history of the NFL and its most iconic franchise.
To that point, the Packers were enjoying a season in which they had steamrolled to a 12-3 record.
Aaron Rodgers was having his best season since his 2014 MVP campaign. A key part of his success was the play of the offensive line. Bakhtiari was the pillar of a unit that boasted two All-Pro players at season’s end, with center Corey Linsley joining him on the prestigious list.
The scenario for the Packers was simple. A win in Chicago would get them a first-round bye and home-field advantage throughout the playoffs.
After their last three trips to the NFC Championship Game ended in losses on the road, the Packers craved an opportunity to have the road to the Super Bowl run through Lambeau Field.
New Year’s Eve of 2020 was supposed to be a bland practice as the team prepared to invade Soldier Field.
Instead, the fate of the Packers and Bakhtiari changed forever.
Bakhtiari suffered a knee injury that would knock him out for the rest of the season. Coach Matt LaFleur said it was a freak accident. General manager Brian Gutekunst has said the injury was more complex than a torn ACL.
David Bakhtiari walks off the field triumphantly at Chicago in Week 1.
Photo by Dan Powers/USA Today Sports Images
The injury knocked Bakhtiari out for all of the 2021 season, save for one half of the regular-season finale at Detroit.
Bakhtiari missed the first two games of the 2022 season. After starting four consecutive games, he was a surprise inactive at Washington.
This season was supposed to be a chance for a healthy Bakhtiari to reclaim his status as a premier left tackle.
Instead, he played one game before being placed on injured reserve.
When it’s all said and done, Bakhtiari will have had his injured knee operated on five times. He’ll have played in 13 games in three years.
A complex injury might have ruined what could have been a Hall of Fame career.
But what if, in an alternate universe, Bakhtiari never got injured? What would have happened?
The good news is we were given a crystal ball, so we can tell you exactly how that would have looked.
2020
Instead of sitting on the sideline with a complex injury, Bakhtiari would have been active for the team's season finale and two playoff games.
In the real universe, the Packers thumped the Bears at Soldier Field and beat the Rams in the divisional round before falling to Tampa Bay in the NFC Championship Game.
The Packers started Billy Turner at left tackle for those three games, with Rick Wagner taking the snaps on the right side.
The Packers rolled over the Bears and Rams, tallying more than 30 points in both games without Bakhtiari.
It seems logical to believe the team would have been able to repeat those efforts in the NFC Championship Game had Bakhtiari been able to play in the alternative universe we're exploring.
Remember, the Packers rolled through the NFL offensively. Bakhtiari and Linsley joined Rodgers and Davante Adams as All-Pro players from that offense. Elgton Jenkins was a Pro Bowl player. Aaron Jones had a great year. The Packers led the NFL in scoring with 509 points.
Would the Packers have won another title had Bakhtiari never gotten injured?
David Bakhtiari (Photo by Mike De Sisti/USA Today Sports Images)
Their offense was excellent but had one kryptonite. That was a vicious Buccaneers defense, which tore through Rodgers and the offense earlier that season. Green Bay gave up five sacks and scored only 10 points.
With a trip to the Super Bowl on the line, Rodgers was sacked five times and was under fire for most of the afternoon.
A makeshift offensive line simply could not hold up against a pass rush that boasted Shaq Barrett, Jason Pierre-Paul and Vita Vea. All five sacks came against an out-of-position Turner or a past-his-prime Wagner.
Had Bakhtiari played, this game likely would have played out differently. Rodgers with more time to throw could have carved up a Tampa Bay secondary that was missing Antoine Winfield Jr.
With a victory, Rodgers would have led the Packers to the Super Bowl for a second time, where they would have played a Kansas City Chiefs team hampered by injuries.
The Chiefs, who essentially started four guards and a center on the offensive line, couldn't protect Patrick Mahomes. He was sacked three times and, according to Pro Football Focus, faced pressure on 31 of 56 dropbacks. The Chiefs likely would have struggled with Green Bay, as well, with Za'Darius Smith, Preston Smith and Rashan Gary chasing Mahomes around Raymond James Stadium.
Instead of wondering what could have been, Rodgers with a healthy Bakhtiari would have won his second Super Bowl title
In this scenario, the winter of discontent following the 2020 season likely would have been avoided.
While the Packers had just selected Jordan Love in the previous year's draft, winning a championship would have cured everything, giving way to a drama-free offseason.
2021
The Packers as defending champions would make a run at being the first team to win back-to-back Super Bowls since Tom Brady's New England Patriots in 2003 and 2004.
The 2021 Packers were not as good as the 2020 Packers, but still rolled to the best record in the NFC. They were 13-2 in games that Rodgers started and finished. The only losses came in a disastrous opening-day loss to the New Orleans Saints and on the road against the Minnesota Vikings.
Rodgers was once again the league's MVP.
Bakhtiari played half of a game in Detroit. Rather than a springboard to the postseason, Bakhtiari was inactive two weeks later for the divisional-round loss to the San Francisco 49ers.
Rodgers was sacked five times, clearly rattled by the 49ers’ pass rush. The offense scored on their first possession of the game, but that was the last time they'd find the end zone.
Aaron Rodgers was sacked five times by the 49ers in the 2021 divisional playoffs.
Photo by Wm. Glasheen/USA Today Sports Images
Had Bakhtiari played, the protection certainly would have been better. Once again, Turner – who had missed the previous four games due to injury – was inserted at left tackle. Dennis Kelly would have been on the bench rather than at right tackle.
With a healthy offensive line and a more comfortable quarterback, the Packers would get by the 49ers, a perennial thorn in their side, and host the Rams in the NFC Championship Game.
For as many issues as the 49ers cause from a matchup standpoint, the Rams do not present those issues.
Aaron Donald is one of the greatest defensive players ever but has never wrecked a game against the Packers.
Matthew Stafford has had his struggles at Lambeau Field. Sean McVay has never won a game at Lambeau.
The Packers drilled the Rams earlier that season without Bakhtiari. Stafford turned the ball over twice, including an interception by Rasul Douglas that was returned for a touchdown.
A theoretical NFC Championship Game at Lambeau Field would not have gone any different.
With Rodgers playing to his usual standard with the anchor of his offensive line in front of him and with Adams outdueling Jalen Ramsey, the Packers would have won the NFC championship for the second consecutive year.
Since Rodgers vs. Mahomes has never happened in real life, there's no reason to believe the Cincinnati Bengals would not have won in Kansas City to set up a rematch of one of the wildest games of the 2021 season.
The Packers beat the Bengals that year 25-22 in overtime. Both teams’ kickers took turns missing kicks late in the game before Mason Crosby finally made a 49-yard field goal with 1:49 left in overtime.
This matchup would have been different.
The Packers started Isaac Yiadom and Kevin King alongside Eric Stokes that day. Rasul Douglas was not in Green Bay yet. Jaire Alexander had returned from a shoulder injury in the divisional round.
With three more weeks to heal from that injury, Alexander likely would have been in the starting lineup with Stokes and Douglas.
That would have set up a matchup for the ages with Ja'Marr Chase and Tee Higgins facing off against the Packers’ talented trio of cornerbacks.
Ultimately, however, the Packers were a better team than those Bengals. Rodgers would have had time to find holes in the Bengals' secondary, and the Packers' pass rush was at full strength.
Za’Darius Smith, Preston Smith, Gary and Whitney Mercilus were healthy and likely would have made life miserable for Burrow behind a famously leaky offensive line.
Rodgers, like John Elway, finished his career with back-to-back championships and rode off into the sunset.
That would have removed any bad blood between the franchise and arguably its greatest player on the way out the door.
Rodgers would have gotten to retire with the only team he'd ever known, something he stated several times was important to him.
In this scenario, he got his wish, as the Packers give way to a new era.
2022
The Jordan Love era would start one year sooner than it did in real life. Rodgers got the Elway-style walk-off. Two titles. Two MVPs. The hero sendoff everyone wishes for.
The Packers go through their transition at quarterback, but it's much easier to do with two more Lombardi Trophies displayed in the Packers Hall of Fame.
Bakhtiari continues to play out his contract as he rolls toward getting enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
Instead, one day changed everything, and like most of the Rodgers era, the world is left wondering what could have been.
More Green Bay Packers News
Packers sign safety-turned-linebacker
