Urged by Rodgers, Bakhtiari Makes Season Debut
DETROIT – After tearing his ACL on the practice field 374 days ago, David Bakhtiari was back at left tackle for the Green Bay Packers for 27 snaps on Sunday.
It was 27 snaps more than he anticipated playing.
“I got a text from Aaron” this week,” Bakhtiari said on Sunday. “He said, ‘I’d love for you to be out there. It would mean a lot.’”
His comeback from last year’s ACL had been derailed twice, including once by a follow-up procedure. His readjusted sights were set on the two weeks of practice before the playoffs, not the Week 18 game against the Detroit Lions.
“Practice is the most important,” Bakhtiari said. “Putting in consecutive days in practice, knocking off the rust in practice. I’ve played in more than enough games, played in a bunch of playoff games, didn’t really feel the need [to play on Sunday]. When he texted me, I was like, ‘All right, I’ll see how it goes in practice.”
Bakhtiari, having already given Rodgers a fancy golf cart, took his good friend’s request to heart.
“I don’t think he was thinking about playing,” Rodgers said. “I just kind of floated the idea and said, ‘Hey, why don’t you come out and play a couple of series on Sunday?’ I kind of maybe slightly adjusted or course corrected what he wanted to do.”
So, Bakhtiari practiced on Wednesday. On Thursday, he ramped up his conditioning. On Friday, he practiced again.
On Sunday, he played in his first game since Dec. 27, 2020.
“I liked how it was in practice – I didn’t exactly want to be on turf – but I said, ‘Let’s do it. Let’s go have fun.’ I think it was more for him than for me.”
Bakhtiari’s return appeared to go off without a hitch. He played three-plus series. Two of them were long drives – 13 plays for a touchdown and eight plays before a turnover on downs – to test his stamina and ability to block when running out of gas. After his third play of the fourth series, Bakhtiari called it a day. He jogged off the field and was replaced by Yosh Nijman.
The Packers scored a touchdown on that drive. As Mason Crosby kicked off following a commercial break, Bakhtiari walked over to Rodgers, who was standing near midfield, and they embraced.
“I’m so proud of him,” Rodgers said. “He’s been through so much. Obviously, being really close to him and having a lot of conversations with him, it’s been tough mentally, which is understandable. To think you’re coming back in Week 7 maybe, Week 8, have a setback and surgery, it’s been tough on him. I’m so proud of him. It seemed like he was fantastic. I’m just really happy for him, the person. He’s a great person and he makes our team better. Obviously, he’s an incredible player. To celebrate him and his happiness today is pretty special. Nothing like running out there and seeing The Big Giraffe.”
Bakhtiari practiced for the first time this season on Oct. 20. On Nov. 10, he was activated from the physically unable to perform list. His goal of returning for Nov. 7 vs. Kansas City or the following games against Minnesota or Los Angeles was in sight.
However, two days after returning to the 53-man roster, he didn’t practice. On Nov. 23, NFL Network reported that Bakhtiari had a second surgery done on his left knee.
“I had some feeling that it didn’t feel normal for the timeframe it was supposed to be right,” he recalled. “I’ve never been through this before so I was like, ‘All right, I guess this is just how everyone feels coming back.’ I was in constant contact with Bryan [Bulaga, a former teammate who suffered a torn ACL in 2017].”
Bakhtiari said he had too much scar tissue, which was limiting his movement and creating a fluid buildup that needed to be drained.
“I just want to be competitive. My knee doesn’t need to be perfect, it just needs to work,” Bakhtiari said. “Having 80-100 cc of fluid weekly is not conducive to being explosive.”
On Dec. 15, Bakhtiari made a surprise return to practice. It lasted just one week.
After missing two weeks, Rodgers persuaded Bakhtiari to give it another shot.
“It was ups and downs,” Bakhtiari said. “Finally, my knee was starting to respond in the right direction, start trending in a positive direction. I was able to get out there and put a positive week together. I’m like, ‘All right, good, let’s just go out there and see.’ Held up well, so I was pleased with that.”
For not playing in a little more than a year, Bakhtiari was happy with how he played. His footwork and hand placement, he thought, were on point.
During that fourth series, following a 16-yard completion to Davante Adams, Bakhtiari said enough was enough. His “long, long journey” had reached its destination.
“We had a general idea of what we wanted to do” from a snaps perspective, he said. “Just kept going and, once I was hitting the threshold of where I know we wanted to be, I was like, ‘I’ll just keep playing.’ Had a good block and I was like, ‘Yeah, you know what? This is good for me for today.’ So, that’s why I was just like, ‘Eh, let’s have Yosh go in there.’ I think I played longer than our general idea because we wanted to see.”
A few weeks ago, Rodgers said a Bakhtiari at 80 percent of his power is “better than most in the league.” Bakhtiari might not be 100 percent healthy but his mentality is 100 percent in for the playoff run.
“If I’m out there, I’m 100,” he said. “That’s point blank, period. Everything’s relative at the end of the day but, if I’m out there and competing, it’s 100.”
