The Green Bay Packers were without left tackle David Bakhtiari for the second straight practice on Thursday, increasing the possibility that Matt LaFleur’s team will be without their All-Pro on Sunday against the Houston Texans.
Bakhtiari is dealing with a chest injury he suffered against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Sunday. If Bakhtiari misses Friday’s practice, the Packers will likely rule him out for Sunday, meaning Bakhtiari would miss his first start since 2017.
The Packers don’t have a clear cut replacement behind Bakhtiari at left tackle. Coach Matt LaFleur talks all the time about putting the team’s best combination of linemen on the field, but losing Bakhtiari is certainly a complicated situation.
Here are the potential options:
Rick Wagner
The veteran right tackle came off the bench and replaced Bakhtiari in Tampa Bay. He struggled, allowing a sack and a tackle for loss over 23 snaps and two quarters. Wagner looked like a heavy-footed right tackle trying to play on the left side for the first time in a long time. Using Wagner at left tackle would allow the other four starters to remain in place, but does continuity at left guard, center, right guard and right tackle matter if the left tackle can’t do the job consistently?
Elgton Jenkins
The Packers’ second-year left guard might be able to play all five spots along the offensive line, including left tackle. He played right tackle in Week 1 and handled the job just fine. He has good feet, a strong base and some experience at left tackle (5 collegiate starts). If Lane Taylor can survive at left tackle for a game, so can Jenkins. This might actually be a good opportunity to see just how good Jenkins can be on the left side. Remember, Bakhtiari is on the last year of his deal, and the Packers are going to have tough financial decisions to make over the next six months. The downside here is all the potential moving parts. Would the Packers just plug in rookie Jon Runyan at left guard, or move Lucas Patrick to left guard, Billy Turner to right guard and Rick Wagner to right tackle?
Billy Turner
This is probably the most likely option. Turner, the starting right tackle, has NFL experience playing left tackle. It’s not much (46 snaps), but it’s still something. He could slide over to the left side and let Rick Wagner take over at right tackle. While not a perfect scenario, there’s no such thing as perfect when it comes to replacing an All-Pro left tackle. So few teams have capable backups at tackle. Turner probably has the versatility to survive, with help, for a week or two.
Yosh Nijman
The Packers list Nijman, a second-year offensive tackle who went undrafted in 2019, as the backup left tackle on the depth chart. Sunday’s decision to play Wagner after Bakhtiari went down shows just how much the depth chart really means. The guess here is there’s very little chance the Packers would throw Nijman out there over trying one of the other options, but who knows. The coaches see these guys every week, and it’s possible Nijman has made considerable progress.
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