GREEN BAY — David Bakhtiari wasn't worried about his NFL preseason debut, and no one else should have been worried either.
The Green Bay Packers rookie fourth-round pick, who assumed the starting left tackle job after Bryan Bulaga was lost for the season to a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his knee suffered last Saturday in the annual Family Night Scrimmage, held up well and was one of the few bright spots in the Packers' 17-0 shutout loss to the Arizona Cardinals Friday night at Lambeau Field.
"I didn't feel overwhelmed. That's probably the best way to put it," Bakhtiari said. "I didn't feel overwhelmed at all."
Bakhtiari started with left guard Josh Sitton, center Evan Dietrich-Smith, right guard T.J. Lang and right tackle Marshall Newhouse. The other four went out after the opening, Aaron Rodgers-led series, while Bakhtiari stayed in the game. Newhouse came back later and rotated at right tackle with Don Barclay.
"He's been playing well all camp, and he played well tonight," Sitton said. Asked if he could tell that Bakhtiari played well without watching film, Sitton replied, "You know. You don't know 100 percent, but Aaron didn't get hit, and we have a couple fits on runs that I was pleased with."
Said Bakhtiari: "They didn't call anything, didn't show anything that was alarming where I was, 'Josh, what are we doing? What are we doing?' It was a nice, smooth transition, so I didn't feel too many jitters or brain farts."
Bakhtiari played roughly 35 snaps. The one sack on Graham Harrell that was the line's fault — a sack/fumble by John Abraham — came against Newhouse. Bakhtiari may have had one or two poor run blocks but was solid throughout.
Jason Wilde wrote: