GREEN BAY — The first report had the Green Bay Packers hoping for the best and fearing the worst with lef ttackle Bryan Bulaga. The second report delivered the worst.
According to ProFootballTalk.com's Mike Florio, Bulaga suffered a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his knee during Saturday night's Family Night Scrimmage and is done for the year.
Asked via text message if Bulaga had indeed torn his ACL, a club source replied, "Looks like it." Another source said Bulaga was seeking a second opinion but that the news was unlikely to change.
Bulaga's move to left tackle was the centerpiece of the team's overhaul of its offensive line during the offseason.
The story began with a report from Bob McGinn of theMilwaukee Journal Sentinel saying Bulaga suffered a knee injury during the annual scrimmage. Bulaga played the entire time that the No. 1 offensive line was on the field and was seen walking after practice, but he apparently went to the medical staff afterward to report some discomfort.
Just two days earlier, offensive line coach James Campen stood in the hallway outside the Packers locker room and pronounced that the reconfigured line — with Bulaga at left tackle, Josh Sitton at left guard, T.J. Lang at right guard and Marshall Newhouse at right tackle had actually surpassed his expectations in the first week of training camp.
"You know, I think that quite frankly it's exceeded what I thought it would be at," said Campen, who informed the players of coach Mike McCarthy's decision before individual position work sessions in May and had the group first working together as a unit at organized team activity practices. "I think they've done a very good job with their footwork. They took advantage of the OTA periods to get adjusted to it. I think they're over that hump. It's just a few little things, new footwork they've got to work on, but I think they've adjusted very well."
Bulaga suffered a season-ending hip injury last Nov. 4 against the Arizona Cardinals but was full-go throughout the offseason.
The Packers' options are limited at this point if Bulaga's injury is indeed severe. They can put Newhouse back at left tackle — he worked there with the No. 2 offense during the scrimmage — or they could fast-track rookie fourth-round pick David Bakhtiari, who started the past two years at left tackle at Colorado and has put himself in the thick of the right tackle competition with a strong week of work since the pads came on.
Asked about playing left tackle during the scrimmage, Newhouse gave no indication that it was anything other than extra work.
"It's good that I've gotten a lot of work in OTAs and stuff at right, and now these left tackle reps are really good refresher, muscle-memory type stuff to get my explosiveness, keep it where I know it's been at," Newhouse said. "Even with all the gains I've made in the offseason, to transfer that over to the left side, from this time last season, I'm in a different place as a player and I've progressed."
The Packers still don't have 2011 first-round pick Derek Sherrod at their disposal, as he remains on the active/physically unable to perform list, yet to be cleared from the broken leg he suffered in December 2011.
Jason Wilde wrote: