Bakhtiari done in Green Bay after 11 seasons

GREEN BAY, Wis. — After as many knee surgeries as All-Pro seasons, David Bakhtiari has been released by the Green Bay Packers. A source told ESPN that Bakhtiari is not ready to end his 11-year career at this time.

“For whatever happens next,” he wrote, “I look forward to it.” The franchise left tackle said goodbye in a social media post Monday.

A lot of emotion in this. I just want to say THANK YOU Green Bay. Thank you for the last 11 years. It’s been a hell of a run. I always wanted to raise a Lombardi on Lombardi avenue, but I will never complain. I gave it my all. I always gave it my best no matter the circumstance… pic.twitter.com/dnc7gkKSAC

— David Bakhtiari (@DavidBakhtiari) March 11, 2024

The end for Bakhtiari seemed to be inevitable after he underwent a fifth surgery on his ailing left knee late last season, effectively ending his career with the team that picked him in the fourth round of the 2013 draft.

Bakhtiari, 32, actually underwent two surgeries on his left knee last fall, bringing the total number of operations on that knee to five since he tore his ACL on Dec. 31, 2020. In the past three seasons, Bakhtiari played in only 13 of a possible 51 regular-season games.

The latest issue popped up after he played in the regular-season opener last year. Shortly after that, he underwent what he called a minor surgery to “clean out and address what we’re going to do going forward.”

That would lead to a more complicated procedure to address the lateral femoral condyle cartilage tear Bakhtiari sustained during the initial injury. The reason it wasn’t repaired during his first ACL surgery, he said, was because there was a chance it wouldn’t be problematic going forward.

Bakhtiari said before his last surgery that he hoped to be ready for the start of the 2024 training camp.

Bakhtiari was entering the final year of the four-year, $92 million extension signed in November 2020, less than two months before he tore his ACL. He was scheduled to make $21.5 million this season, and because none of it was guaranteed, that will be wiped off the Packers’ salary cap. They will, however, count more than $19 million in dead money on their 2024 cap. He would have counted $40.5 million had he been on the roster to start the season.

It didn’t take Bakhtiari long to establish himself as one of the premier left tackles in the NFL. He was named an All-Pro for the first time in 2016, when he made the second team. He also made second team in 2017 and 2019. He was selected as a first-team All-Pro in 2018 and 2020.

Even after the injury, Bakhtiari performed at a top-tier level when he could play. The problem was he couldn’t consistently stay in the lineup. The Packers allowed Bakhtiari to practice only occasionally in an effort to preserve him for games.

Bakhtiari said last fall between the fourth and fifth surgeries that he wanted to keep playing but understood that the business side of things could prevent that from happening in Green Bay.

“I think everything’s on the table,” Bakhtiari said in October. “For me, I can only control what I can control. I think making sure I attack the rehab, win the day, take the bites out of that elephant, finish the elephant, and then decide and see. They have decisions they need to make, what’s best for their franchise. I understood that the minute I got in here.”

Bakhtiari was one of the last of Aaron Rodgers‘ closest confidants still on the team’s roster.

Packers general manager Brian Gutekunst has plenty of high draft picks if he wants to use one on a left tackle. He has five picks in the first three rounds, including two second-rounders and two thirds.

Rasheed Walker, a seventh-round pick in 2022, served as Bakhtiari’s replacement for most of the season. When asked recently whether Walker could be the starter, Gutekunst said: “I certainly think he’s already shown that he’s done a great job.”

However, Gutekunst stopped short of anointing Walker as the heir apparent.

“I want competition at all five spots,” Gutekunst said. “But Rasheed, again, another guy that the improvement in the work that he put in, it’s exactly what we want, and expect him to continue to get better. But he had a pretty good year last year, he’s got a ton of upside. Great person. And I’m excited to see where he’ll go.”