Packers Rumors: What's the plan with Zach Tom in 2023?
Zach Tom played an unexpectedly crucial role for the Green Bay Packers offensive line as a rookie in the 2022 season. He played just shy of 500 snaps and spent time all along the offensive line, seeing at least 80 snaps at four different positions and an addition 14 snaps at right guard as well. He was the definition of a floater.
And it speaks to the talent of the former fourth-round pick out of Wake Forest that he stepped into those roles and managed to put together a great first campaign in the NFL, grading out as one of the better pass blockers in the league and improving throughout the season in the rushing attack as well.
Now that the Packers are fully healthy along the O-line, though, what's the plan for Tom? Apparently, that hasn't exactly been decided just yet.
Green Bay offensive coordinator Adam Stenavich spoke to the media along with the rest of the coaching staff recently and said that, with a ton of competition along the right side of the line, that Tom is going to spend time this offseason competing at virtually every spot, right tackle, right guard and even mentioning throwing him in at center to some degree, per Packers Wire.
During the offseason, continuing to move the extremely versatile Tom around in order to find the best role for him as the right side tries to complement the elite duo of David Bakhtiari and Elgton Jenkins over on the left is a worthwhile endeavor.
Having said that, the offseason should be for experimentation. While the Packers have the luxury of being able to move Tom around when needed, be that due to injuries or anything else, the best avenue for his development is to give him a spot and allow him to work more there. Hopefully, Green Bay is able to find that spot in minicamps and training camp in order for that to take effect.
Packers Rumors: Keeping Quay Walker 'busy' will be key to second-year growth
The first of two Georgia defenders that the Packers selected in the first round of the 2022 NFL Draft, linebacker Quay Walker had a fine season in terms of his performance between the whistles as a rookie.
While he showed a real need to improve in run defense, he was highly effective dropping into coverage, which makes sense looking at his draft pedigree as a bit of an undersized linebacker with elite athletic traits and length. He finished the season with 87 solo tackles, three forced fumbles and five pass breakups.
It was the stuff after the whistle that became a bit of a problem.
Walker was ejected twice in his rookie season, once for pushing a Bills practice squad player on the sidelines in Week 8 and in the regular-season finale as he pushed a Lions medical staff member as the staffer was attempting to tend to an injured Detroit player. So what do the Packers plan to do in order to keep that from being an issue in year two and moving forward?
Keep Quay Walker busy.
Linebackers coach Kirk Olivadotti recently discussed the plan for the second-year backer and how to remedy the mental lapses after plays, noting that Walker was willing to learn from his mistakes after conversations they'd had, and putting forth this manner of dealing with that going forward:
"Play to the whistle, and then be so busy in between snaps that you don't even notice what else is going on because you're moving on to the next play," Olivadotti said, via NFL.com. "There's other parts to it also, but that's a big part of it."
How the Packers actually plan on keeping him busy between the snaps, that remains to be seen. But at least the coaching staff is aware of the issue, discussing it, and working toward some solution.
Packers Rumors: Safety room drawing mixed, questionable message from coaches
When you look at the Packers depth chart, safety sticks out like a sore thumb. It's by far the most unproven position group on the defensive side of the ball as only Darnell Savage returns with more than 20 starts to his credit — and we saw Savage sidelined by the coaching staff at times last season for his inconsistent performance on the field.
The other seats in the safety room are occupied by Rudy Ford, Jonathan Owens, Tarvarius Moore, seventh-round rookie Anthony Johnson Jr., and Dallin Leavitt, among a few others. But if you ask at least one Packers coach, they aren't in a bad spot at the position.
Safeties coach Ryan Downard had this to say about his position group, preaching optimism spawned from competition, which he believes "brings out the best", via PackersNews:
"I like where our safety room is in terms of the competition right now. There's an opening there, and there's only one guy in the room who's played a ton of snaps for us. So I actually addressed the guys yesterday, 'Hey, you guys have to be pros about this. Everybody in this room is trying to get a job. So it's full competition when we go on the practice field, but we've also got to have each other's back.'"
Defensive coordinator Joe Barry sounded a little less cheery, noting in his press conference that he didn't know who the other starter would be with Savage, though at least briefly echoing the sentiment that they have the offseason to try and determine that via competition.
With that being said, there is uncertainty of the highest order with this position group right now. Moreover, just because there is a competition doesn't mean someone wins it with great play. As Adrian Amos remains a free agent and with the Packers still not having a definitive answer, this indecision and potential misguided hope for the safety room could ultimately lead to bringing back the familiar face if they don't like the results they see in the offseason.
