The Green Bay Packers have a good chance of getting a former All-Pro back on the field for their season-opening road game against the Minnesota Vikings on Sunday.  

Left tackle David Bakhtiari, who has been rehabilitating from a serious knee injury since the end of the 2020 season, told ESPN Monday that he is ready to start in week one.  

"Yeah, I mean, I'm on the active (roster) just like anyone else," Bakhtiari said. 

The three-time Pro Bowl selection began the Packers’ offseason on the physically unable to perform list but has been a full participant in recent practices, including 11-on-11 workouts.  

Bakhtiari, 30, originally suffered a torn left ACL on Dec. 31, 2020, and has undergone three surgeries on the knee since.  

He returned briefly to the field in Week 18 last season, playing 27 snaps in Green Bay’s regular-season finale before experiencing complications and being shut down for the postseason.  

After 20 months of working to return to protecting Aaron Rodgers’ blindside, Bakhtiari believes he is ready to once again anchor the Packers’ offensive line.  

"I can get through the season," Bakhtiari said. "It's going to be fine. You have to just manage while playing. 

"I'm just getting back in the swing of things. So, I mean, I think there's normal rust and then new normal with three surgeries, so just kind of working that out and figuring out what my routine is." 

Green Bay’s second-most decorated offensive lineman, Elgton Jenkins, remains a question mark as he is working his way back from his own ACL surgery.  

Head coach Matt LaFleur was noncommittal on the possible return of Jenkins, a 2020 Pro Bowler.  

"We'll have to find out on Sunday," LaFleur said. 

Green Bay Packers All-Pro left tackle David Bakhtiari barely played last season, and there’s no telling when he’ll be healthy enough to take the field this coming season after he had another procedure on his left knee.

The latest procedure would be at least the third known surgery since Bakhtiari suffered a torn left ACL on New Year’s Eve 2020.

Bakhtiari has played just one game since the original injury, and that came in the regular-season finale at Detroit on January 9 before he was shut down for the playoffs. He was placed on the physically unable to perform list Wednesday as the Packers opened training camp.

Bakhtiari attended the Packers’ offseason program but did not practice, and instead worked off to the side with the rest of the players rehabbing injuries.

''It's a nightmare, my nightmare that I have to live,'' Bakhtiari said. ''I don't know how many days it's been, but I'm just excited to wake up (from the nightmare) one day.''

The Packers remain hopeful that Bakhtiari will be ready for the season opener at Minnesota on September 11.

''I think we're cautiously optimistic,'' general manager Brian Gutekunst said.

Clearly, the Packers are going to take a cautious approach with Bakhtiari, who was playing well enough to earn first-team All-Pro honours for a second time when he originally hurt the knee. His first surgery came after the 2020 season, before the second procedure to reduce swelling in the knee during the 2021 regular season.

''Everyone loves timelines,'' Bakhtiari said. ''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. 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.''

With Bakhtiari unavailable for either of Green Bay's past two playoff losses, the Packers allowed five sacks in each of those games.

Green Bay faces the possibility of opening this season without its two best offensive linemen. Elgton Jenkins is also attempting to come back from an ACL tear he suffered on November 21 against Minnesota.

David Bakhtairi's hopes of being ready for the start of the 2022 season appear in jeopardy after he was placed on the Physically Unable to Perform (PUP) list by the Green Bay Packers.

The Packers open their training camp on Wednesday as they prepare to make another push for a Super Bowl title after suffering more playoff disappointment last season.

But Bakhtiari will not be on the practice field as he continues a prolonged recovery from a torn anterior cruciate ligament and meniscus damage suffered in December 2020.

Players added to the PUP list may be activated at any time before Week 1 but cannot practice before then. 

Five-time All-Pro Bakhtiari played in just one game in 2021, featuring for 27 snaps against the Detroit Lions in Week 18.

However, he was absent as the Packers suffered a 13-10 defeat to the San Francisco 49ers in the Divisional Round of the NFC playoffs.

In 2020, Bakhtiari allowed a pressure rate of just 2.8 per cent, tied for the best in the NFL among left tackles with Andrew Whitworth, per Stats Perform data.

Should he be able unable to line up for the Packers' Week 1 clash with the Minnesota Vikings, Yosh Nijman – who started eight games in 2021 – would likely step into the breach

The Green Bay Packers looked every inch a Super Bowl favourite in Week 16 as they decimated the Tennessee Titans in a 40-14 blowout at Lambeau Field.

However, this week saw the Packers hit a significant bump in their road to Super Bowl LV in Tampa with the news that All-Pro left tackle David Bakhtiari had suffered a torn ACL.

The silver lining for Bakhtiari is that the injury occurred after he signed a four-year, $105.5million extension to make him the highest-paid offensive lineman in NFL history.

But it still stands as a devastating blow to head coach Matt LaFleur's Green Bay offense, which has this season served as a weaponised version of the schemes run by Kyle Shanahan and Sean McVay, thanks to the incredible seasons being enjoyed by Aaron Rodgers and Davante Adams.

Yet the mind-meld Rodgers and Adams have demonstrated in the 2020 campaign risks being shattered if the Packers cannot protect their two-time MVP quarterback properly.

Widely viewed as the best left tackle in football, Bakhtiari is pivotal to them doing that and his absence could prove key in the regular-season finale and the postseason.

The Packers still need to win in Week 17 to make sure of the top seed in the NFC and homefield advantage throughout the playoffs. Not having Bakhtiari could make success against a talented Chicago Bears defense significantly more difficult.

How much will the Packers miss Bakhtiari in that game and when the stakes are raised even higher in the postseason? Here we examine whether his injury could be a potential death knell to their Lombardi Trophy ambitions.

A 2015 drop-off

Bakhtiari has missed snaps in two previous seasons for the Packers -- 2015 and 2017.

The caveat for the 2017 campaign is it was one in which Rodgers was unavailable for all but nine games, making it tough to use that season as a gauge for how the Packers will perform with their starting quarterback but without his top pass protector.

Green Bay's performance minus Bakhtiari in 2015, however, suggests the Packers will find life substantially tougher deprived of his services.

He missed two games of the 2015 season and his absence was keenly felt.

Their yards per play average dropped from 5.29 to 3.93 in the time he was off the field, with the Packers' net yards per pass play crumbling from 5.96 to 4.29.

Similarly, Green Bay's rushing production took a big hit without Bakhtiari, their yards per rush average dipping from 4.4 to 3.21.

The issues Green Bay had throwing the ball minus Bakhtiari were clearly a product of increased pressure.

Without him protecting Rodgers' blindside, the percentage of sacks given up by the Packers more than doubled. Rodgers was sacked on 6.3 per cent of passing plays in the 14 games with Bakhtiari but that figure ballooned to 12.9 in the games in which he was unavailable.

The Packers' quarterback hit percentage also increased from 15.5 to 20.7, with Rodgers pressured on 43.1 per cent of dropbacks compared to 32.3 when Bakhtiari was on the field.

It is no surprise, therefore, that the Packers' efficiency on third down declined without Bakhtiari, moving the sticks on just 25.6 per cent of third downs, falling from 35.5 per cent when he was on the field.

The numbers on plays without Bakhtiari since 2013 reflect the 2015 struggles, though the picture from the Packers' three games without him this season is less clear.

A mixed bag in 2020

There is no doubt the Packers are worse offensively without Bakhtiari.

With him in the line-up in 2020, Green Bay average 6.46 yards per play, 7.48 net yards per pass and 5.19 yards per rush. When they have been bereft of his services, those numbers dip to 5.56 yards per play, 7.19 net yards per pass and 3.62 yards per rush.

Where things are a bit murkier is in the metrics that measure pressure.

The Packers have given up a higher percentage of sacks when Bakhtiari has been out, that figure climbing from 3.7 to 4.1. However, their quarterback hit percentage dropped from 8.7 to 6.6.

It is a similar story in quarterback pressure percentage, though the improvement without Bakhtiari has been marginal, Rodgers pressured 29.2 per cent of dropbacks when he has played and 28.9 per cent when he hasn't.

And the difference may be explained by Rodgers becoming ever more comfortable in a scheme that relies heavily on an aspect of offensive football that is key to neutralisng aggressive pass-rushing defenses. 

Can play-action threat be sustained?

The play-action pass is a staple of the LaFleur offense, and the Packers have upped their usage of it during his second season in charge.

Last season, the Packers ran 131 play-action passes, resulting in 978 yards, an average of 7.46 yards per play.

With one regular-season game remaining this year, that number has jumped to 140 plays. Only seven teams have used it more regularly in 2020.

And they have enjoyed increased success on those throws, which have netted 1,108 yards -- an average of 7.91 yards per play.

Play-action is an excellent tool for putting defenses that look to attack downhill on their heels, and the numbers suggest that, as long as Packers succeed in effectively running such plays, they can mitigate the impact of Bakhtiari's absence.

To subscribe to that theory is to oversimplify things. 

The threat of a productive ground attack is a significant aid to the play-action pass and the Packers certainly had that against the Titans, racking up 234 rushing yards in their emphatic triumph.

Yet the numbers indicate they may struggle to maintain that kind of running game production without Bakhtiari, potentially influencing the respect more talented defenses will give to the rushing attack in the postseason.

History says Bakhtiari's absence will indeed be a significant problem, though what the Packers have done in 2020 hints that they may be able to successfully protect Rodgers without him.

But it is clear the Green Bay running game is a different beast with Bakhtiari on the field. If their production in that regard tails off and negatively influences the play-action game, then the Packers offense might not be the potent threat it has been all season.

The loss of Bakhtiari is not necessarily a fatal one for the Packers, but it is a blow that could critically limit their upside as they bid to emerge as the cream of the crop in the postseason.

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