Bulaga tunes up before Packers' regular-season opener

KANSAS CITY – No one would have criticized Bryan Bulaga for not taking part in the Green Bay Packers’ final exhibition game against the Kansas City Chiefs on Thursday night.

 After all the work Bulaga did to come back from a torn left ACL suffered Nov. 6, why would it matter whether he went into the 2018 regular season without having played a single down of live football?

But after sitting out the first three games, Bulaga sat down with his bosses and discussed the benefits of playing a series or two with three of the other starters on the offensive line just to make sure they were all ready for the opener against the Chicago Bears 10 days away.

“I thought maybe that would have happened last week; it didn’t,” Bulaga said. “Not a big deal. So, come this week they said we’d like to see a couple series just to keep your feet wet before the opener and I was totally fine with it. I thought it was good for me personally.

“It was something that we have really good pass rushers on our own team, but it’s just a different scenario when you’re on the game field. To be able to get those reps and make those kind of in-game adjustments on the fly, those are valuable reps.”

BOX SCORE: Chiefs 33, Packers 21

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REPLAY: Packers-Chiefs game blog

Bulaga made it through the game unscathed and said he felt he was ready to play a full game. The medical staff has been careful to ease him back into action so that he could avoid any swelling that might come with the stress of playing football.

The last two weeks, he has been practicing with the No. 1 offense and now he has some game reps to show him the knee is just fine.

“There’s going to be soreness, that’s a given,” he said. “That’s not anything I’m not prepared for. Nothing of that nature would shock me. Everything that I’ve done up to this point, I haven’t had swelling.

“The minor aches and pains I’ve had are nothing shocking from an ACL rehab. All those things, I mean they were less than with the last one (right ACL tear). That’s been very positive for me.”

Only left tackle David Bakhtiari and center Corey Linsley did not take part in the game among the offensive line starters. Guard Lane Taylor came out at the same time as Bulaga and guard Justin McCray came out after playing both guard positions and center.

Excused absence: Coach Mike McCarthy held 22 players out of the game and all of them stayed home.

The only players nursing injuries who did not travel were inside linebacker Oren Burks (shoulder), receiver Jake Kumerow (shoulder), tackle Kyle Murphy (ankle) and running back Devante Mays (hamstring).

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Healthy players who did not travel were: quarterback Aaron Rodgers, receiver Davante Adams, receiver Randall Cobb, safety Ha Ha Clinton-Dix, safety Kentrell Brice, running back Jamaal Williams, cornerback Tramon Williams, linebacker Blake Martinez, linebacker Clay Matthews, defensive tackle Mike Daniels, tight end Jimmy Graham, running back Ty Montgomery, tight end Marcedes Lewis, linebacker Reggie Gilbert, end Muhammad Wilkerson, nose tackle Kenny Clark, Bahktiari and Linsley.

Farewell performance: Running back Aaron Jones saw his first action of the preseason after fighting through a hamstring injury and it was a fairly long assignment because he won’t be available for the next two weeks.

Jones will serve a two-game suspension for violating the NFL’s substance abuse policy, so this was his last chance to see action. McCarthy wanted Jones to get a healthy amount of work and played him most of the first half.

Jones rushed nine times for 34 yards and a touchdown and caught three passes for 21 yards. His longest run was 13 yards. He showed some of the shifty moves he displayed a year ago, but he also looked like a guy who hadn’t played in a while.

Jones will begin his suspension Monday. He won’t be allowed to practice with the team or travel to games, but he will be allowed to attend meetings and work out on his own.

All worked up: Another guy playing catch-up with playing time was returner Trevor Davis.

After missing all but the final week of training camp, he was back for all eight of the team’s kickoff returns and three punt returns. He averaged 22.9 yards per kickoff return and minus-4 yards on punt returns. He fumbled on his punt return, but fullback Joe Kerridge recovered it.