Packers place offensive tackle Bakhtiari on injured reserve as he continues to deal with knee issue

Updated Sep. 29, 2023 12:57 a.m. ET

Associated Press

GREEN BAY, Wis. (AP) — Green Bay Packers left tackle David Bakhtiari was placed on injured reserve Thursday, his latest setback stemming from a knee injury that has limited him for the past three years.

The Packers announced the move before their 34-20 loss to the Detroit Lions on Thursday night. Bakhtiari has missed three straight games and now must sit out at least three more. He is eligible to return Nov. 5 against the Rams.

“I hate the situation Dave’s in and I feel for him," Packers coach Matt LaFleur said after the game. "He’s been battling and battling and battling to try to make it back.”

Asked whether Bakhtiari would miss the rest of the season, LaFleur replied that “I’m not going to get into that.”

Bakhtiari, 31, is one of the NFL’s top pass blockers when healthy. He was a first-team All-Pro selection in 2018 and 2020, and he received second-team honors in 2016, 2017, and 2019.

But he tore the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee on Dec. 31, 2020, and has been dealing with issues in that knee ever since.

“He’s tried everything,” LaFleur said. “He wants to be out there, he wants to play ball. He’s tried anything and everything to make it back, and his knee’s not responding in the right way. I feel for him, and it’s just the situation we’re in right now.”

The knee injury caused him to play just one game during the 2021 season. He played 11 games last season, sitting out three because of his knee injury and three more to recover from an appendectomy.

He started and performed well in a season-opening 38-20 victory at Chicago this season, but he hasn’t played since.

“I would love to put this in the rearview mirror but maybe it’s just something that I’ll have to deal with till something else — intervention comes in that can eradicate it, because it’s been a perpetuating annoyance that I’ve had to shoulder here since 2021,” Bakhtiari said on Sept. 20.

The Packers also are playing without left guard Elgton Jenkins, who missed a second straight game Thursday after spraining his medial collateral ligament in a 25-24 loss at Atlanta in Week 2.

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