GREEN BAY, Wis (WFRV) – Standing in front of his locker, talking for the first time since after the regular season finale in Detroit, you could tell Packers left tackle David Bakhtiari was carrying a weight.
“We wanted to see how it responded,” he said when asked about how the knee felt after those 27 snaps he played against Detroit. “Obviously it didn’t respond well, so I had another procedure in the off-season, to clean it up.”
Bakhtiari was put on the physically unable to perform list over the weekend and has yet to take the practice field as training camp begins for the Green and Gold. General manager Brian Gutekunst says that he believes that Bakhtiari will see the playing field again and is working his tail off to return.
When asked how he handled the frustration of wanting to be on the field but not being able to, Bakhtiari said it was like driving a sports car but not being able to put it out of first gear.
“It feels normal, finally,” Bakhtiari said. “My knee feels normal, and it’s no longer an ACL issue. That has long since been fixed.”
Bakhtiari tore his ACL in late December of 2020. He tried to come back throughout the 2021 regular season but continuous setbacks kept him out until the last game of the regular season with the Lions. Bakhtiari feels he will return to the football field.
“Concern level: low. Really like where I’m at, especially compared to just where I was overall last year,” the left tackle said.
