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Offensive lineman Zach Tom of the Green Bay Packers.
The Green Bay Packers walked into Soldier Field hobbled by injuries on both sides of the football and walked out even worse off following a deflating playoff collapse to the division rival Chicago Bears.
Offensive tackle Zach Tom didn’t play in the team’s Wild Card game on Saturday night, sitting out his fourth consecutive contest with knee and back issues. On Monday, January 12, Tom explained that his knee problems were worse than perhaps anyone outside the facility truly knew, as surgery is now on the table for Green Bay’s best offensive lineman by a wide margin.
“Packers RT Zach Tom said he’s leaning toward surgery for a partially torn patellar tendon suffered in Week 15,” Matt Schneidman of The Athletic reported on X. “Estimates the recovery time as six months.”
“After the Denver game we did a scan and they saw it was like a partially-torn patellar tendon,” Tom told reporters Monday. “So we thought we could do like a PRP injection and it would get better come Week 18 or playoff time and, you know, it just didn’t really improve as much as we wanted it to.”
Zach Tom Again Among NFL’s Best Offensive Tackles, Despite Injury Issues
GettyRight tackle Zach Tom of the Green Bay Packers.
Tom was the best right tackle in the NFL in 2024 and finished as the second-rated player at that position this season with an overall grade of. 83.5 as determined by Pro Football Focus. That score slotted him as the eighth-best tackle overall, including players who line up on the left side of their respective units.
Green Bay paid him accordingly, inking Tom to a four-year contract extension worth $88 million total in July 2025.
Unfortunately for the Packers, Tom went on to miss five regular-season games this year with injuries as well as the team’s playoff contest against Chicago over the weekend. And Tom’s injury undoubtedly contributed to the Packers’ inability to score effectively during the second half. Green Bay entered halftime with 21 points and finished the game with 27 points.
The offensive line is a significant question mark for the Packers, one of several in Green Bay heading into the offseason, as the group regressed from the sixth-best overall unit grade in 2024 to the 19th spot this year.
“The Packers’ offensive line struggled in pass protection this season,” Zoltán Buday of PFF wrote on January 7. “The unit gave up 173 pressures, including 15 sacks, on 561 pass plays. That fueled an 83.2 PFF pass-blocking efficiency rating, which ranked only 26th in the NFL in 2025.”
Packers Head Into Offseason With Major Injuries to Key Players Across Roster
GettyGreen Bay Packers edge-rusher Micah Parsons.
Tom’s projected return timeline should have him back on the field in time for the official start of the preseason, though minicamp and OTAs might be a stretch — at least as full practice participation is concerned.
Tight end Tucker Kraft, who suffered an ACL tear in early November, should return somewhere in the nine-month range, which would put him back as a full participant at some point in August.
Pass-rusher Micah Parsons tore his ACL in Week 15 and recently underwent surgery to repair the damaged ligament. There is a solid chance that he is ready for Week 1 of next season, though how much full and unregulated practice time he’ll have with Green Bay’s first defensive unit before then remains an open and serious question.
Max Dible covers the NFL, NBA and MLB for Heavy.com, with a focus on the Green Bay Packers, Minnesota Vikings, Chicago Bears and Cleveland Browns. He covered local and statewide news as a reporter for West Hawaii Today and served as news director for BigIslandNow.com and Pacific Media Group’s family of Big Island radio stations before joining Heavy. More about Max Dible
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