We guess this isn’t the typical way to get into an NFL team.

Former Green Bay Packers offensive tackle David Bakhtiari is taking an interesting path to trying to get on the Kansas City Chiefs roster at this point in 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, Bakhtiari may just be having some fun online connected to his respective alma maters, but Bakhtiari had a message for Patrick Mahomes on Saturday via a post on Twitter/X:

Of course, Mahomes went to Texas Tech, and Bakhtiari is a Colorado product (Eric Bieniemy shout out!), but it was interesting that Bakhtiari threw down the gauntlet the way he did.

Side note: It is important to realize in advance that The Texas Tech Red Raiders were defeated by the Colorado Buffaloes with the final score 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, regarding Bakhtiari’s claim, it would be one thing if he just wanted to throw in the garbage, but there seems to be a sense of getting to the game board on Bakhtiari’s part and he found a way to couch it inside an innocent. post. Bakhtiari could have just talked trash, could have said he would guarantee a win, could have offered a gift to Mahome’s charitable foundation…15 and 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 put two and two together here, what you’re basically seeing is Bakhtiari publicly saying, “Hey, I’m ready to get back into the game of football and I’d like to do it for the Kansas City Chiefs.”

Bakhtiari, of course, is a highly decorated offensive lineman who has five All-Pro honors to his name (two as the top left tackle in all of football) and three Pro Bowl appearances over 131 games played — all for Green Bay. Think of him as the Mitchell Schwartz of the Packers. He’s a hell of a player and on the surface it might sound like a good addition.

There are two big questions here for the Chiefs: 1.) How do they feel about offensive tackle? and 2.) How much does Bakhtiari have left?

There were battles early at the position, as the Chiefs entered the season with two young and inexperienced players: first-round pick Kingsley Suamataia and second-year player Wanya Morris. The former got a wide-open chance to start the season as the first-year starter next to Joe Thuney but he was permanently replaced in the lineup, at least so far this season, at the end of Week 2 by the latter. Morris himself is not without limitations.

As for Bakhtiari, despite all 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 just 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. It’s a bad track record since covid.

Now it is entirely possible that Bakhtiari is ready to go, that the surgery was meant to get him back to a healthy place and that he is well rested and ready for the stretch. Bakhtiari is a player who certainly knows what it takes to play at a high level and he has been through this stretch himself with Aaron Rodgers and the Packers.

It’s also true that many old veterans wait until the eleventh hour before sometimes plugging into the game they love. It saves them from the hardships of a long and arduous season, the drudgery of training camps and the like. For Bakhtiari, he has also been able to map out which potential teams are pretenders or challengers.

While it’s impossible for anyone outside of Arrowhead to sort out these questions, it feels like Bakhtiari is sending out a very real flare wrapped in an online joke. If there is interest on one side, we will soon find out if there is interest on the other.

Maybe the Chiefs aren’t done adding veteran players after all.