Bakhtiari to begin training camp on Packers’ PUP list

Green Bay Packers All-Pro left tackle David Bakhtiari will begin training camp on the physically unable to perform list, according to the NFL transaction wire. The Packers are set to begin camp Wednesday.

Bakhtiari is presumably still recovering from an ACL tear suffered at the tail end of the 2020 NFL season. Ahead of the playoff run, Bakhtiari tore his ACL during practice on Dec. 31, 2020. He has played a mere 27 snaps in the 21 games since. Those snaps came during the 2021 regular-season finale against the Detroit Lions, a litmus test for Bakhtiari’s load management ahead of the playoffs. He did not end up playing in the Packers’ lone postseason game.

Bakhtiari was able to practice sparingly with his team during the latter half of the 2021 year, before a second surgical procedure took him back off the field. The Packers have not practiced the veteran lineman to this point of the offseason. While in the building and watching on the field, the offensive lineman did not participate in any football activities during OTA’s or mandatoryminicamp.

“Our plan all along was to hold him from [offseason workouts] and make sure he’s continuing to get stronger and ready to go hopefully for training camp,” said coach Matt LaFleur. “We just thought that this is a guy that’s played a lot of ball and it’s best to hold him from this portion of it.”

The NFL will not allow clubs to place a player on the regular-season PUP list unless said player began camp on the PUP list as well. Teams can activate that player from PUP at any point during camp. If he begins the regular season on the PUP list as well, he must stay there for the first six weeks of the season. The Packers’ regular season kicks off on Sept. 11 against the Minnesota Vikings.

A player has 21 days to be activated from the physically unable to perform

list once they begin practicing.

The continued setbacks with Bakhtiari’s recovery have forced the Packers to shuffle their offensive line repeatedly the past year. As to whether their lefttackle will be ready for this season, LaFleur is remaining cautiously optimistic.

“Time will tell,” he said. “We fully anticipate him being ready to go, but we did last year as well. So I think time will tell, but we feel good about the work he’s

put in and where he’s at.”

Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers, who performed Bakhtiari’s wedding this offseason, had hoped his lefttackle would be ready by training camp. Rodgers, who thus far has only been present at mandatory minicamp, said, “He’s been working really hard. Hopefully training camp he’s full go, good to go. But I know he’s been working hard and itching to get back out there.”

AP David Bakhtiari, who played in only 27 snaps last season as he battled back from a torn ACL, will start camp on the physically unable to perform list.