Tackle David Bakhtiari put in plenty of work this off-season. Credit: Mark Hoffman

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Green Bay — Take notes, all. The David Bakhtiari workout plan is top notch.

"Ate a lot of Doritos. Sat on my (butt). Gained a lot of weight," Bakhtiari said.

OK, Bakhtiari is being sarcastic. This off-season, the Green Bay Packers left tackle did in fact get significantly stronger. For him, added muscle is central to building on his rookie season.

When Bryan Bulaga tore his anterior cruciate ligament Aug. 3, Bakhtiari stepped in and started all 16 games. Mostly undaunted against elite pass rushers, Bakhtiari realizes he was far from perfect.

He maintains that 2013 was a solid, not spectacular, season. OK. Average.

Through this added muscle, Bakhtiari hopes to improve and last.

"I'm very critical of myself because my thought is the day I become complacent and think you're there is the day I'll get fired and I'll be out of a job," Bakhtiari said. "Me and my buddy back in college, we have the slogan of, 'You can always get better, you can always try harder.' You can give it everything you've got, but there's always more in the tank.

"For me to say it was fantastic and it was the best year, no. I think I could have even done better, just as a rookie. Overall, it was a good year for a rookie."

Yet Day 1 of organized team activities, there was no question. Bakhtiari was the left tackle. Bulaga was the right tackle. One of the most important jobs on the field is his.

Listed at 300 pounds, Bakhtiari wouldn't disclose how much weight he has gained, treating the number with NSA-level security. Offensive line coach James Campen says the tackle put on "seven, eight, nine pounds of solid muscle." Campen vows it's "good weight," not plain mass.

Bull rushers did pose a problem at times. During the Thanksgiving Day calamity at Detroit, Ziggy Ansah had his way with Bakhtiari.

From January to May, Bakhtiari took full advantage of his first off-season. At the gym, there's a major difference in preparing for an NFL season than preparing for a scouting combine.

"I knew I just needed to work on football strength," Bakhtiari said. "Upper body here, lower body there for football, not for standing on a stage."

Added strength will help in all facets, he says. In pass protection, he expects to be "more stout," to drop a heavier anchor against those bull rushers bench-pressing into him. In the run game, he expects to "move players" with more horsepower.

This is a tricky balance. Bakhtiari needed to add muscle without sacrificing his greatest asset — quickness. Smooth, natural footwork helped Bakhtiari adapt so quickly when Bulaga went down.

"As per pound you put on," Bakhtiari said, "you want to make sure your foot quickness is up to par. The last thing you want is to say, 'Yeah, I put on 10 pounds, but can I still get into the same spot that I used to? Am I sluggish?'"

The true test won't come until training camp. As Campen said, Bakhtiari understands you only get better or worse.

"You're not going to stay the same," the coach said, "and he knows that."

The minicamp setting highlights/exposes skill-position players — not linemen — but Campen can detect a difference in Bakhtiari's strength.

"You can see evidence in him being able to do that even better without losing his athletic ability," Campen said. "Because he does have very good feet. He's very quick. When you combine that with some extra weight and strength, you expect him to be better."

Campen wasn't too worried about Bakhtiari losing quickness because he's only 22 years old. He's still developing physically.

He agrees with Bakhtiari's take on Year 1, too. It was good, he said, "for a rookie."

Now, teams have 17 games of film on Bakhtiari. Pass rushers are bound to attack him accordingly. He'll see familiar faces in Ansah and Jared Allen and new ones in Carolina's Greg Hardy, New England's Chandler Jones and Buffalo's Mario Williams.

Campen knows these players will see that Bakhtiari, for example, pass-sets a specific way 80% of the time in a specific situation.

"You need to find a secondary set," Campen said, "a secondary way of doing something," Campen said. "So we've worked through all those things....Everybody will get a set pattern, a rush pattern against a guy. So you have to do your due diligence and make sure you're giving your players enough tools to combat that.

"He was basically setting as you would expect a young player, to set to win. But you have to have changeups. He's been working on that this camp."

More muscle might help.

One potential catastrophe — a prolific passing game losing its left tackle — hardly sent a ripple through the offense last season. Bakhtiari brought an even-keel amnesia to the position.

In Year 2, Bakhtiari is aiming for more. He certainly looks different. The exact number on the scale will remain a mystery.

Said Bakhtiari, "I gained a good amount of weight."