The Green Bay Packers pulled out left tackle David Bakhtiari from the physically unable to perform, or PUP list earlier on Sunday after a torn ACL injury sustained in late December 2020. The Green Bay Press-Gazette’s columnist Pete Dougherty confirmed the news.
According to Dougherty, Packers head coach Matt LaFleur also updated Bakhtiari’s condition, saying that the All-Pro LT will participate in the team’s individual drills this week.
However, there is no timeline regarding when he would return to play games with the team or whether he would be ready for Green Bay’s final preseason game on August 25 against the Kansas City Chiefs.
Potential return in upcoming season
Before Sunday’s training, LaFleur hinted at Bakhtiari’s potential return in the upcoming season. However, the head coach was wary and wanted the player to adapt to playing for the team slowly. LaFleur’s solution was individual drills and assigning him to play against offensive linemen.
“We’re going to take it a day at a time,” LaFleur said. “There’s no thought as far as Week 1 is concerned right now. We just want to see how he responds and when he’s ready he’s ready.”
LaFleur also praised Bakhtiari for making remarkable progress following his devastating injury.
“He’s been making really good progress, and I think mentally he’s in a very good place, as well. And he’s worked his tail off for a long time now to get to this point. As far as making the decision, I got a text a little bit ago that he was coming off, so I was pretty excited about that,” he added.
Before the start of the training camp, the 30-year-old had spoken about his condition and potentially returning with the Packers.
“When I’m ready, I’ll be out there. What I can say is I do feel really good. I really like – I feel normal. My knee feels normal, and that’s the biggest plus,” he said on July 27.
“Now it’s just getting that normal feeling again when I play football. So, that’s what it is: the load, stress, strength, but we’re not really in an ACL issue. That’s actually been a long time ago that we put that chapter to bed. It’s just there’s other issues.”
More on Bakhtiari’s injury
Bakhtiari underwent a total of three knee surgeries after he tore his ACL in a practice session on December 31, 2020. It was a little over a month after the team signed him to a four-year, $105.5 million contract extension. The signing made him the highest-paid offensive lineman in NFL history that day.
However, due to his unfortunate injury, Bakhtiari was ruled out of the remainder of the 2020 season. Early in the following year, the Packers placed him on the reserve/PUP list until he was reactivated back on November 10, 2021, hoping he could make it into the Week 10 game against the Seattle Seahawks. However, it was once again ruled out that the San Mateo native would miss out on the majority of games in that season.
Green Bay reactivated the two-time First-team All-Pro from the list, and he played the Detroit Lions on January 9 this year, just ahead of the season finale. The three-time Pro-Bowler played 20 snaps in the first half of the game before he sustained a third-string. Fellow LT Yosh Nijman replaced him for the remainder of the game. The Packers declared Bakhtiari inactive in the playoffs of the season and appointed right tackle Billy Turner as his replacement.