Packers veteran reiterates, clarifies rebuilding comments

Green Bay Packers offensive tackle David Bakhtiari made some waves earlier this offseason when he spoke about the team as rebuilding in the aftermath of the Aaron Rodgers trade.

Nobody in the Packers' front office has ever used the word "rebuilding" to describe the current state of the team, and running back Aaron Jones has hit back at the notion, but Bakhtiari doubled down on his assessment this week at the team's OTAs, per ESPN.

He also explained that rebuilding does not necessarily mean the team will not win this season.

"How I look at is, it's disrespectful to say you're not rebuilding off a Hall of Fame quarterback. It was disrespectful to say you weren't rebuilding off of Brett Favre when you moved to Aaron. No one knew Aaron and what he was going to be, so I'm not going to sit here and like pull back those words because that is, when you look at how it's been building, how we were chasing after it and the cap - there was a bunch of situations that can definitely allude to it - we have a young team."

He went to draw a comparison to last year's Seattle Seahawks and how they were able to remain competitive after trading their own franchise icon. 

It is not a terrible comparison, either.

When the Seahawks dealt Russell Wilson to the Denver Broncos for a bounty of draft picks and players, there was a belief that the team was doomed to be one of the worst in the NFC and be years away from contention, especially with a career journeyman in Geno Smith taking over as the starter.

Instead, Smith put together a career year and became the team's new franchise quarterback, while Seattle was able to stay competitive in a wide open NFC West and earn a surprising playoff berth. Now the Seahawks look primed to be a consistent contender in the NFC, especially after all of the draft picks it got from Denver.

Green Bay did not get the same type of return for Rodgers, but also might have a better in-house quarterback ready to take over. Jordan Love remains unproven, but he was a first-round pick and has been their quarterback-in-waiting for years. 

The NFC North is also extremely wide open.

The Chicago Bears have promise, but were the worst team in the NFL a year ago. The Minnesota Vikings also seem primed for a regression after winning more one-score games than any team in the league. Detroit might be the preseason favorite in the division, but even it is far from a sure thing.