Packers and David Bakhtiari seemingly avoid disaster

Green Bay Packers left tackle David Bakhtiari’s injury isn’t as bad as it could have been.

When the Green Bay Packers took the field for their annual Family Night scrimmage, the last thing the staff and all 64,702 fans in attendance wanted to see was the team’s season placed in jeopardy due to injury at a glorified practice.

That was nearly the case for Packers star left tackle David Bakhtiari.

Bakhtiari’s left ankle rolled up on him while pass blocking against Kyler Fackrell. Bakhtiari would then limp his way to the sidelines before eventually being carted off of the field, leaving the sold-out crowd and all of those watching at home in dismay.

With Green Bay already facing depth concerns along the offensive line, and the team knowing the importance of keeping QB Aaron Rodgers upright and healthy this season, a loss the magnitude of Bakhtiari would drastically dampen the Packers’ hopes for a successful 2018 season.

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Fortune seemingly smiled the Packers’ way, however, as Ian Rapoport of NFL Network reported that Bakhtiari’s injury isn’t as bad as once feared and shouldn’t keep him out of the regular season opener against the Chicago Bears on September 9.

If some practice time and preseason reps are all that Bakhtiari misses, then the team caught a lucky break. Green Bay was already coming off the good news this week that right tackle Bryan Bulaga passed his physical and would be given the green light to resume practicing, albeit in a limited fashion.

The team will now surely be taking a closer look at their backup tackle situation given Bakhtiari’s near scare, Bulaga’s cautious return, and the underwhelming performance’s of backups Kyle Murphy, Jason Spriggs and Byron Bell.

For now, however, the Green Bay Packers can breathe a sigh of relief that a catastrophic injury to their star tackle looks to have been avoided.