Green Bay Packers left tackle David Bakhtiari is the best left tackle in the National Football League.

Even if you don’t agree with me, you can respect the opinion because of how consistently good his body of work continues to be.

An All-Pro selection by the Associated Press and Pro Football Focus for the better part of the past five years, Bakhtiari continues to be the best pass blocker in the game – and is a very capable run blocker.

Anyone who knows the game of football knows how valuable the position of left tackle is. Especially when you’re protecting a certain aging quarterback named Aaron Rodgers.

And if you’ve watch the Green Bay Packers’ offensive line play over the past four years, you knew Bakhtiari was more than deserving of a handsome contract extension.

“Because as every housewife knows, the first check you write is for the mortgage, but the second is for the insurance. And the left tackle’s job is to protect the quarterback from what he can’t see coming. To protect his blindside.”

Alright, that’s a cheesy quote from “The Blindside.” I’ll spare you any more movie references, especially when the movie is as cheesy as that one.

But it’s true.

The organization thinks he’s the best offensive lineman in the league. And they paid him as such on late Saturday night.

The Packers extended him for another four years with up to $105.5 million dollars of new money. The base contract is worth $23 million a year and could reach $23.5 million, according to Ian Rapoport.

This new contract makes him the highest paid offensive lineman in NFL history.

“I do love it here and I do love representing the Packers,” Bakhtiari said. “It’s been a nice match and something that I don’t want to look back at now, but later on in my life it’s something special to say that I spent this much time here.”

I know some Green Bay fans might think this contract is too much money or so on. But I’m here to tell you that the position of left tackle is something that cannot be undervalued. Especially when they’re as good as Bakhtiari.

According to Pro Football Focus, Bakhtiari’s pass-block grade since 2018 is 93.9%. That’s the highest over that time-span.

And who knows? If the Packers would’ve let him become a free agent, he may have gotten even more money in free agency. In fact, he probably would have.

I know this makes it tough to extend all the guys that are about to become free agents. Guys like Aaron Jones, Kevin King and Corey Linsley. But if you would’ve asked me to rank the four based on who I would like to see back the most, big Dave would be the first on my list.

Also, he’s one of my favorite personalities on the team. Heck of a guy.

So I won’t walk back my statement that I started this blog with. I do believe he’s the best left tackle in the league, and I’m glad he’s on my team for four more years.

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Gunnar Davis is a lifelong Packers fan and a recent graduate of Simpson College, where he was a 3-year letterwinner on the offensive line and graduated with a degree in multimedia communications. You can follow him on Twitter at @Gunnar57Davis.

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