David Bakhtiari made his first appearance of the 2022 season on Sunday and the Packers started him at left tackle, but it wasn’t exactly business as usual for the veteran.
Bakhtiari and Yosh Nijman alternated series over the course of the game as part of a plan to ease Bakhtiari in while avoiding the kind of setbacks with his knee that quashed earlier comebacks from his 2020 torn ACL. After the game, Bakhtiari admitted he wasn’t crazy about the idea of platooning when he first heard it but was ultimately pleased with how things played out during the 14-12 win.
“I think it was what I expected on a lot of things, from conditioning, level of play, the talent out there against that good defense, but just thought I liked where we were at,” Bakhtiari said, via Matt Schneidman of TheAthletic.com. “We’ll look at the film and see where we’re at with that. But overall, I think no matter what, regardless of what was going to go on out there, I’m just happy. The win was to get me out there and get me through. Today’s not the best day for evaluation on health, but I think if I feel good coming out, that’s the biggest plus and takeaway we can do. We’ll see how the week goes, and like coach says, we’ll take it one game at a time.”
Packers head coach Matt LaFleur didn’t commit to any plan at left tackle going forward, but it would seem likely that Bakhtiari will see more playing time if his knee responds well to Sunday’s activity.