The Green Bay Packers had some money to throw around after releasing Josh Sitton and they quickly used it. They used it to extend the contract of one of Sitton’s former linemates, left tackle David Bakhtiari.
Bakhtiari got a four-year deal worth up to $51.67 million. When the final year of Bakhtiari’s current deal is factored in, the contract will average out to $12 million per season. That’s the going rate for a top-tier left tackle.
In fact, it puts Bakhtiari among the five highest-paid offensive linemen in the league. His average salary is less than just Washington’s Trent Williams, New Orleans’ Terron Armstead, Dallas’ Tyron Smith and Buffalo’s Cordy Glenn.
All five guys are under 30 and all play tackle. Of the five, only Williams (4) and Smith (3) have actually earned a Pro Bowl berth.
In terms of performance, it’s questionable whether Bakhtiari is worth this much money. He’s definitely had his ups and downs, although he appears to be playing his best ball in 2016.
In terms of the market, Bakhtiari is certainly worth $12 million per season. Had he actually hit free agency, he might have made more.
Left tackles, even ones who are decent and not great, are hard to come by.
We don’t have the full breakdown of the deal, but we would expect the Packers used up a decent chunk of this year’s salary cap space to sign Bakhtiari. They had $16.9 million of cap space available after releasing Sitton. By front-loading a gigantic contract like this, they can lesson the cap hits in future seasons.
The Packers still have two potential free agents along their offensive line. Both center J.C. Tretter and guard T.J. Lang have contracts that expire after the season.