We all knew this was coming. Bryan Bulaga was just being stubborn.
Bulaga tore his ACL during the Green Bay Packers Family Night scrimmage. He was diagnosed by the team doctor on Monday, but insisted on getting a second opinion, probably because he was able to continue playing after the tear occurred during Family Night. That led Bulaga to noted NFL g0-to surgeon Dr. James Andrews and — surprise! — Andrews told Bulaga the same thing.
Bulaga will have surgery when the swelling in his knee goes down and is expected to miss 8-to-10 months.
“It’s definitely the right decision and if you look at the history of the way we’ve treated people, we’ve never advised a player to take the harder road,” coach Mike McCarthy said after practice. “At the end of the day, it is the player’s decision.
“The thing about Bryan Bulaga is the way the injury happened, his response to the injury where he kept playing and to come in here the next day and was doing one-legged squats and you see him walking down the hall and he doesn’t look like a man who’s getting ready to have knee surgery. I think for everybody involved and particularly with Bryan I think there was just some hope that maybe it wasn’t as bad as the initial opinion.
“You never ultimately know until you go in there. All indications are that he needs to have the surgery.”
Now that the decision to have surgery has been made, Bulaga will land on injured reserve for the second consecutive season. Bulaga missed the final seven games of the 2012 season with a hip injury.
In the meantime, rookie David Bakhtiari will take over at left tackle. If he plays well, you have to wonder where that leaves Bryan Bulaga when he’s finally able to get back into a game.