Much like Tucker Kraft, who had a breakout 2024 season but wasn’t even an honorable mention in ESPN’s rankings of tight ends entering 2025, Green Bay Packers right tackle Zach Tom is still hunting league-wide recognition at his position group. ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler collected votes of coaches, executives and scouts to rank players at each position group, and Tom — like Kraft — received votes within the top 10 of offensive tackles but didn’t get enough to be ranked or qualify as an honorable mention.

To be fair, the pool of possible selections at offensive tackle is deeper than at tight end, and the position group has several veteran players entrenched as top players. Gaining recognition across the NFL takes time, especially at a premium position, and it shouldn’t be surprising that Tom isn’t yet universally considered one of the league’s top 16 offensive tackles.

Among the honorable mentions was Jake Matthews, Ronnie Staley, Kolton Miller and Taylor Decker. One could easily argue that Tom played a better season than all four in 2024, but like Pro Bowl voting, recognition often lags behind by at least a year.

Last season, Tom ended the regular season as the fourth-highest graded offensive tackle at Pro Football Focus. He earned an elite run-blocking grade while allowing only three sacks and 24 total pressures across 562 pass-blocking snaps. More impressively, Tom has improved significantly over each of his three NFL seasons. A pleasant surprise as a fill-in player during his rookie season in 2022, Tom emerged as a solid starting right tackle in 2023 and then blossomed as a top-end player at right tackle in 2024.

While he wasn’t a Pro Bowler, Tom received All-Pro votes at right tackle last season. Rather incredibly, Tom produced the season after missing most of the offseason while recovering from a torn pectoral muscle.

The next step for Tom? Signing a big, new deal with the Packers this summer, and then building on his first season as a top player. Truly great players can consistently create great seasons, so Tom must prove his 2024 season was a sustainable peak of performance.

If he can, Tom will almost certainly find himself within the top 10 of Fowler’s list by this time next year.

This article originally appeared on Packers Wire: Like Tucker Kraft, Packers OT Zach Tom still hunting for league-wide recognition entering 2025