We're assuming this isn't the typical way to make your way onto an NFL team.
Former Green Bay Packers offensive tackle David Bakhtiari is taking an interesting path to try to get onto the Kansas City Chiefs roster at this stage of the season. Instead of going through player agents or representation and a general manager or some other front office executive, Bakhtiari is making his case directly to the Chiefs' star quarterback.
Now maybe Bakhtiari is just having some online fun connected to their respective alma maters, but Bakhtiari had a message for Patrick Mahomes on Saturday via a post on Twitter/X:
Hey @PatrickMahomes, if your @TexasTechFB beat my @CUBuffsFootball, I’ll come play left tackle for you.
— David Bakhtiari (@DavidBakhtiari) November 10, 2024
Mahomes went to Texas Tech, of course, and Bakhtiari is a Colorado product (Eric Bieniemy shout out!), but it was interesting that Bakhtiari threw down the gauntlet like he did.
Bakhtiari is hinting at something more
Side note: It's important to realize up front that the Texas Tech Red Raiders were defeated by the Colorado Buffaloes by a final score of 41-27. Tech had the early lead, up 13-0 after the first quarter, but the Buffs took over from there on the backs of their stars Shedeur Sanders and Travis Hunter. Back to this in a second.
First, about Bakhtiari's claim, it'd be one thing if he just wanted to trash talk, but there seems to be an itch to get to the playing field on the part of Bakhtiari and he found a way to couch that inside of an innocent post. Bakhtiari could have just talked trash, could have said he'd guarantee a win, could have offered a gift to Mahomes' charitable foundation—15 and the Mahomies.
Second, Bakhtiari knew they were favored. Colorado is a ranked team with more talent and a better record. In other words, it was the safe bet to make to favor Colorado over Tech.
When you add two and two here, what you basicallly see is Bakhtiari publicly saying, "Hey, I'm ready to return to the game of football and I'd like to do so for the Kansas City Chiefs."
Bakhtiari is, of course, a very well-decorated offensive linemen who has five All-Pro honors to his name (two as the top left tackle in all of football) and three Pro Bowl appearances across 131 games played—all for Green Bay. Think of him as Mitchell Schwartz for the Packers. He's a helluva player and on the surface it can sound like a great addtion.
Bakhtiari is a mystery for the Chiefs
There are two great questions here for the Chiefs: 1.) How do they feel about offensive tackle?, and 2.) How much does Bakhtiari have left?
There were struggles early at the position, as the Chiefs went into the season with two young and inexperienced players: rookie second-round pick Kingsley Suamataia and second-year player Wanya Morris. The former was given the wide-open chance to start the season as the first-year starter next to Joe Thuney but he was permanently replaced in the line-up, at least so far this season, by the end of Week 2 by the latter. Morris himself is not without limitations.
As for Bakhtiari, for all of his accolades, the truth is that Father Time comes for every player's career and Bakhtiari has made more than one start in a season only once since 2020. He started 1 game in 2021 due to injury, played in 11 games in 2022 (again, due to injury), and 1 again in 2023 after deciding to have knee surgery. That's a poor track record since COVID.
Now, it's entirely possible that Bakhtiari is ready to go, that surgery was intended to get him back to a healthy place and that he's well-rested and ready for the stretch run. Bakhtiari is a player who certainly knows what it takes to play at a high level and he's been through the stretch run like this himself with Aaron Rodgers and the Packers.
It's also true that a lot of storied veterans end up waiting until the eleventh hour before sometimes plugging back into the game they love. It saves them from the rigors of a long and arduous season, the toils of training camp, and the like. For Bakhtiari, he's also been able to survey which potential teams are pretenders or contenders.
While it's impossible for anyone to sort out these questions outside of Arrowhead, it does feel like Bakhtiari is putting out a very real flare wrapped up in an online joke. If there's interest on one side, we'll find out soon enough if there's interest on the other.
Maybe the Chiefs aren't done adding veteran players after all.