GREEN BAY, Wis. – In the lowest moments of his 20-month nightmare, when his left knee was swollen and his mind was weary and the football field couldn’t have felt further away, David Bakhtiari’s will was tested.
He had signed a four-year, $92 million extension with the Green Bay Packers six weeks before tearing an ACL on New Year’s Eve 2020, a contract he demanded be the richest annual salary for any offensive lineman in NFL history before putting a pen to it. That was back when Bakhtiari was invincible, the best pass blocker in football. His indomitable spirit kept getting chipped away over the months that followed, as setbacks recycled, surgeries piled and a recovery process that’s supposed to last roughly 10 months almost doubled.