GREEN BAY, Wis. — It doesn’t look as if the Green Bay Packers will have starting right tackle Zach Tom for Sunday night’s game at the Dallas Cowboys.
Tom reinjured his oblique — the same problem that kept him out of Week 2 — on the first play of Sunday’s Week 3 loss at the Cleveland Browns and did not return. A source told ESPN’s Adam Schefter that Tom is not expected to play this week and that, with the Packers on their bye the following week, they will reassess his status for Week 6 against the Cincinnati Bengals after some time off.
Tom, widely considered their best offensive lineman, initially sustained the injury in the season opener against the Detroit Lions at Lambeau Field. He was listed as questionable last week and practiced on a limited basis.
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It was somewhat of a surprise Tom was active against the Browns, which, in hindsight, coach Matt LaFleur said was a mistake. However, LaFleur said Monday that Tom did not make the injury worse but was not able to continue.
“I wouldn’t say he further reaggravated,” LaFleur said Monday. “I think it was, more or less, it’s always hard to simulate what you’re going to face in a game. You’d have to ask him, but I think that the force of the guy that he’s going against, it hurt him. He didn’t feel like he could go.”
The Packers signed Tom to a four-year, $88 million extension that included a $30.2 million signing bonus in July.
The Packers have used four different players at right tackle in three games this season: Tom, Darian Kinnard, Jordan Morgan and rookie Anthony Belton.
One of their other marquee signings, left guard Aaron Banks, also dropped out of Sunday’s game, in his case because of a groin injury. Banks, who signed a four-year, $77 million contract in free agency in March, did not play after halftime against the Browns.
The Packers finished Sunday’s game with Morgan at left guard and Belton at right tackle.
Cleveland applied heavy pressure on quarterback Jordan Love, pressuring him on 13 of his 31 dropbacks in the game. That 42% pressure rate was the highest he has faced in a game in his career, according to ESPN Research.
