Chicago Bears Week One: Packers Tackle health worth following
The Green Bay Packers have two elite bookends at tackle who could disrupt the Chicago Bears when healthy. The emphasis at this point has to be when healthy, though.
A matchup in Week One between the Chicago Bears and Green Bay Packers that has a lot of name power is the Packers tackles taking on the Bears edge rushers. While there is a lot of name talent in all four of the starting names, there seems to be a question attached to each name.
Of course, with the Chicago Bears, they have Leonard Floyd dealing with a hand injury that will have him playing with a cast. In Khalil Mack, they have an elite talent who just held out all summer and is switching teams. His play may be limited.
Fortunately for the Chicago Bears, the Packers tackles bring enough questions to make this a very enticing matchup.
Bryan Bulaga has been an elite performer for years now. However, since tearing his ACL in 2013, he has been on a bit of a decline, especially regarding health. Bulaga missed four games in 2015. While he played the entirety of 2016, he missed almost all of 2017, playing in just five games.
It was another knee injury that held him out, and the knee injury had him play just 12 snaps in the preseason. Bulaga is cleared to go for Week One, but is 29 now and has two serious injuries under his belt. His matchup against Khalil Mack will be one to watch.
On the other side in David Bakhtiari, who is younger and has a cleaner bill of health. However, 2017 featured the most games missed of his career. He was held out of four games with an ankle injury. While it was not deemed severe, Bakhtiari missed time in the preseason with the same ankle. The team mentioned that they were precautious, but it is worth noting that the flare-up occurred. This helps even the playing field with Floyd dealing with his issue.
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Overall, the Bears will need to get after Aaron Rodgers if they are going to compete in this game. The Packers tackles are known for doing a strong job of protecting their leader but could be in a vulnerable spot on Sunday.