The Green Bay Packers received a huge boost ahead of Sunday’s game against the Cincinnati Bengals, as they welcomed back starting offensive linemen Aaron Banks and Zach Tom. Banks and Tom have been dealing with groin/knee and oblique injuries, respectively, over the last few weeks, which have hindered the Packers’ offense.
Thankfully, the Week 5 bye came at the right time for both guys, as they were able to rest and make it through practice in the days leading up to Sunday’s game. That said, it appears that Tom is still not 100% healthy, which isn’t great to hear if you’re a Packers fan or head coach Matt LaFleur.
According to Rob Reischel of Forbes.com, Tom told reporters after Sunday’s win that he was still in a lot of pain, which caused him to miss a lot of the details that he usually remembers. As you can imagine, some Packers fans on social media wondered why he’s playing if he’s hurting.
Zach Tom Still Dealing with Pain Following Packers’ Week 6 Win
On Monday morning, ESPN’s Rob Demovsky posted the snap counts from Sunday’s win and highlighted how Tom “went the distance” as he played all 61 offensive snaps. However, he even said that the veteran lineman was in “obvious discomfort” after the game and mentioned that Tom wouldn’t answer whether he should’ve given his oblique injury more time.
The Packers might’ve thought that they were out of the woods with Tom, but now they need to keep a close eye on him leading up to their Week 7 game against the Arizona Cardinals. In the days before their Week 6 clash against Cincinnati, Tom told reporters he was confident in going the distance and said, “Having the confidence that your body is going to hold up is obviously huge.”
As we saw, Tom went the distance, but at what potential cost? When the Packers didn’t have the veteran on the field, their pass blocking suffered mightily. Tom has quietly developed into one of the better right tackles in the league.
According to Pro Football Focus, the 26-year-old Tom only allowed 28 quarterback pressures and four sacks across 561 pass-blocking snaps last season.
That said, if Tom is dealing with any additional pain during practice this week, the Packers might need to sit in and roll with Darian Kinnard or Anthony Belton (missed Week 6 with an ankle injury). It’s not ideal for Green Bay, but they cannot afford Tom to injure himself further, which could have much more severe consequences.