Pro Bowl 2019 substitutions

OT David Bakhtiari instead of either offensive tackle (NFC)

Bakhtiari has earned the highest pass-blocking among all offensive linemen in the league by PFF

I don’t think any of the three names on the NFC side is as absurd as Eric Fisher is in the other conference, but I still believe people are overlooking would Bakhtiari has done these last three years.

The Packers’ left tackle struggled with power rushers early on in his career, but with work on his core and balance he has developed into a much more sturdy pass protector.

Green Bay introduced the “hug-technique” to the league a few years ago and their tackles have had a lot of success with that hand-positioning to keep their quarterback clean.

When you have a signal-caller like Aaron Rodgers, who loves to buy time and get out of the pocket it puts a boatload of pressure on your tackles to sustain contact with their rusher for a long time.

Despite that Bakhtiari has earned the highest pass-blocking among all offensive linemen in the league by PFF, while being in the elite category three straight seasons, and he has just two holding calls accepted against him all year long.

As far as the ground game goes, the Packers are tied for second in the NFL with 5.0 yards per rush attempt even though their coaches haven’t featured their running backs enough. During the offseason, I said I would take Trent Williams as my number one tackle and I thought Tyron Smith wasn’t far behind, but both those guys have missed multiple games.

Terron Armstead has started just nine games and his teammate Ryan Ramczyk probably is more deserving because they have both been excellent and Ramczyk has been manning his side all 14 weeks.

A strong argument can be made that Bakhtiari is the league’s premiere pass protecting left tackle with the agility and active feet to mirror just about anybody and the oily hips to quickly transition when reacting to twists up front.