Packers preseason Week 1 inactives: Bakhtiari, Alexander out on Friday

Nine of Green Bay’s players will be held out of the preseason opener.

The Green Bay Packers open up their preseason schedule on Friday Night against the Cincinnati Bengals in Paycor Stadium, a game that will be broadcast both locally on the Packers Television Network and nationally on NFL Network. The two teams had a joint practice earlier this week, which you can read about HERE and HERE, which seems to have been plenty of snaps for the Bengals’ first-team units — who, for the most part, are being held out of tonight’s action.

On the Packers’ end of things, only nine players will be held out of action — a much smaller number than we’re used to from head coach Matt LaFleur’s previous teams. Below are the players who won’t play tonight, per the Packers:

• RB Lew Nichols
• WR Grant DuBose
• TE Josiah Deguara
• LT David Bakhtiari
• OL Jake Hanson
• OLB Rashan Gary
• CB Jaire Alexander
• CB Eric Stokes (PUP)
• CB Innis Gaines

Every single one of the players above is either coming off of an injury or dealing with a current injury, so none of these inactives should be surprising. The only player who raises an eyebrow is Jaire Alexander, who has been working with the team only in the individual periods over the last few practices. Due to the nature of the preseason, the Packers do not have to give out detailed injury lists at this point in the summer.

While LaFleur has not committed to playing his starters in the preseason, at least publicly, NFL Network’s Bridget Condon reported earlier that Green Bay quarterback Jordan Love will play “a series or two” tonight along with most of the Packers’ other starters.

Based on the reports from warmups, Love playing tonight does seem to be correct. According to ESPN’s Rob Demovsky, with Bakhtiari out of the lineup, here’s what Love’s protection will look like tonight: