Zach Tom allowed two sacks and 36 pressures in 656 pass-blocking snaps last year. Additionally, he was Green Bay’s highest-graded run-blocker according to Pro Football Focus. Tom allowed just 2 QB hits all year despite facing opponents like Aidan Hutchinson, Danielle Hunter, Maxx Crosby, TJ Watt, Khalil Mack, Joey Bosa, and Brian Burns.
Among 19 offensive tackles with at least 650 pass-blocking snaps last year, Zach Tom allowed the second-fewest sacks and quarterback hits. He also allowed the fifth-fewest pressures. Tom’s pass-blocking efficiency was 97.2, the fifth-best grade.
You can see Zach Tom’s importance to the Packers’ offense by looking at Jordan Love’s playoff performance against the 49ers. In the first six drives with Tom, Love went 15 for 22, 168 yards, 2 TDs, and had a 120.3 rating. After Tom’s injury, Love went 6 for 12, 30 yards, 2 INTs, and had a 16.7 rating. Tom’s presence clearly impacted Love’s effectiveness.
Trent Williams and Penei Sewell were first-team All-Pros, while Lane Johnson and Tyron Smith were second-team last year. Zach Tom allowed fewer quarterback hits and committed fewer penalties than three of them. Additionally, Tom had a better pass-blocking efficiency grade than Lane Johnson.
Zach Tom has a career 73 PFF overall offensive grade, a 65.7 run-blocking grade, and a 76 pass-blocking grade. His 2023 grades were all above 73.9, which is above average. While Tom is proven to be an above-average tackle, he will likely need to get his grade above 80. Three of the four All-Pro offensive linemen in 2023 had at least two grades above 80. Moreover, Zach Tom will probably need to allow fewer pressures. In 2023, Tom allowed 33 pressures, which isn’t bad, but three of the four All-Pro offensive linemen had 20 or fewer pressures allowed.
Tom had two overall offensive grades above 80 in the regular season last year. Additionally, he had 10 grades under 70.0, with 7 falling between 65.0 and 70.0. Moreover, Tom had 7 run-blocking grades below 65.0, which indicates room for improvement.
Zach Tom has played 952 pass-blocking snaps in his NFL career. Furthermore, he has allowed 3 sacks and 6 QB hits, while committing 3 penalties. On average, this means a sack or penalty is allowed every 317 snaps and a QB hit every 158 snaps.
While there’s no doubt that Zach Tom is insanely talented, he’ll need to work on being even more consistent, especially in run-blocking. Though he’s great, he’s a bit short of being All-Pro material. With two years within Matt LaFleur’s system, there are reasons to believe that he can take his game to an even higher level.
