On Monday, Green Bay Packers right tackle Zach Tom, who last played against the Denver Broncos in Week 15, revealed that he tore his patellar tendon in his knee and will have surgery to repair the injury
soon, per Packers.com’s Weston Hodkiewicz . The good news is that it’s a partially torn patellar tendon instead of a full rupture. The bad news is that it’s still a patellar tendon tear, which is always a serious injury.
A recent study showed that the return to play rate for patellar injuries, which are rising for NFL offensive linemen in recent years, is 55.4 percent, but the return to play rate is also higher for players who have spent more than four years in the league than for those who have spent fewer than four years in the NFL. In their words: “PT injuries may be even more devastating for a player’s career than previously reported.”
Carolina Panthers left tackle Ickey Ekwonu just ruptured his patellar tendon in the team’s wild card loss to the Los Angeles Rams. Ohio State left tackle Josh Simmons, a 2025 draft pick, was considered to be a top-10-ish pick before rupturing his patellar tendon last season. Eventually, he was drafted with the final pick of the first round by the Kansas City Chiefs.
Tom avoided a full rupture, which makes his case different from Ekwonu and Simmons, but it’s not exactly like he just sprained his MCL or got a bone bruise on his knee, either.
Last week, Packers head coach Matt LaFleur said that the expectation was that Tom was going to be able to play against the Chicago Bears. Tom was even limited for Tuesday and Wednesday practices, before being held out for a “rest day” on Thursday. He was officially listed as questionable going into the game, but I received a tip (that I posted in our elevation thread) three hours before gametime about how Tom was going to be held out of action on Saturday, three hours before kickoff. In short, this wasn’t a game-time decision.
Something obviously had changed between LaFleur’s initial comments and Saturday morning. LaFleur said on Sunday that the team hoped that Tom would avoid surgery, but that “all options” were on the table. LaFleur added, “He went through the week, and we didn’t feel like he could go out there and compete to the level that he needed to and protect himself.”
Tom Silverstein of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel also reported that Tom received a platelet-rich plasma injection to his knee (essentially using your own plasma as an injection into the tendon to stimulate healing), but “didn’t feel he could pass block with it.” Per Silverstein, Tom expects the recovery to last six months, which would put Tom back on the field around the start of training camp.
In other injury news, defensive end Micah Parsons (torn ACL) is aiming to be back on the field by the first month of the 2026 regular season, per ESPN’s Rob Demovsky. Defensive tackle Devonte Wyatt confirmed that he broke his fibula and tore an ankle ligament.
