Zach
Tom.
Zach
Tom.
Wake Forest· 6'4"· 304 lb· 4.94s 40
"An all-conference left tackle who allowed two sacks in more than 3,000 college snaps and started a full season at center, undersized enough that the league had to guess which position he would actually play."Pre-draft read
Tom is a light, quick, technically advanced offensive lineman who wins with footwork and hand placement rather than mass. At 6-4 and 304 pounds he sets fast, mirrors speed rushers and rarely gets caught leaning, which is why he allowed two sacks in more than 3,000 college snaps.
He is at his best in space. Wake Forest's slow-mesh run game asked him to reach defenders on the front side and climb to linebackers, and he does both with balance and finish. Power is the limit rather than the strength: a heavy bull rusher can walk him back and a nose tackle can move him off the spot. The signature is versatility earned on the field: a full season at center and two more at left tackle in the ACC.
An outside and wide zone running scheme that asks linemen to reach, climb and work in space, paired with a quick passing game that limits long-developing bull rushes.
Year 1: the sixth lineman who can cover four spots and start in an emergency. Ceiling: a long-term starting tackle in a zone scheme.
A gap and power run scheme that expects its linemen to drive 330-pound nose tackles off the ball on down blocks, where his lack of mass shows on every snap.
Scheme choice matters more than position choice with him; the offense simply has to protect him from long-developing power rushes.
Zach Tom NFL Draft Tape | Wake Forest OL
Full draft tape of his footwork, pass sets and second-level work at Wake Forest.
Zach Tom Left Tackle Highlights
Blindside cutup from his first-team All-ACC senior season.
Film Study: What Zach Tom brings to the Green Bay Packers
Post-draft film study of his technique, versatility and anchor concerns.
Tom spent five years at Wake Forest and played two positions well. After redshirting in 2017 he appeared in 12 games as a redshirt freshman, then started all 13 games at center in 2019 and earned honorable mention All-ACC while leading the team in snaps. He moved to left tackle in 2020, started all nine games there, and returned in 2021 to start all 14 at left tackle and take first-team All-ACC honors while playing 1,205 snaps, more than any other Demon Deacon.
The tape is the résumé. He gave up two sacks in 3,107 college snaps and, according to Pro Football Focus, was the only returning Power Five center not to commit a penalty across 500-plus snaps. He protected Sam Hartman on an offense that started 8-0 in 2021, the best start in program history, and did it with technique and anticipation rather than raw strength.
The reservations were physical. He was under 305 pounds with short arms for tackle and was going to get bull rushed at the next level, which pushed most evaluators to project him inside to center or guard. That positional uncertainty is what dropped an all-conference blindside starter to the fourth round. Green Bay, a team that has always valued interior flexibility and athletic linemen, took him at 140 and let his position sort itself out in camp.
- 01
Pass protection technique
fast sets, clean hand placement and a quiet lower body, which produced just two sacks allowed across 3,107 college snaps.
- 02
Athleticism in space
reaches defenders on the front side and climbs to the second level with balance, an ideal fit for a zone and wide-zone run game.
- 03
Position versatility
started a full season at center and 23 games at left tackle, giving him a legitimate answer at three or four spots on the line.
- 04
Discipline
the only returning Power Five center not to commit a penalty on 500-plus snaps per PFF, and a player who almost never loses his gap assignment.
- 05
Durability and volume
played 1,205 snaps in 2021, the most on the roster, after leading the team in snaps in 2019 as well.
- 01
Anchor strength
at 304 pounds he can be walked back into the pocket by a true power rusher, a problem that only grows against NFL interior bull rushers.
- 02
Length
short arms for a tackle, which lets long edge defenders get into his frame first and reach his chest before his hands arrive.
- 03
Positional projection
most boards saw him as a center or guard rather than a tackle, which meant paying for a player without a defined NFL home.
- 04
Play strength in the run game
struggles to displace a nose tackle one-on-one and wins by angle and leverage rather than by moving people.
— — — positional median (p50)
- 40 yd
- 4.94sp50
- Vertical
- 33inp50
- Broad jump
- 118inp50
- Three-cone
- 7.32sp50
- Shuttle
- 4.47sp50
- Bench
- —rep
| Yr | Team | G |
|---|---|---|
| 2018 | Wake Forest | 12 |
| 2019 | Wake Forest | 13 |
| 2020 | Wake Forest | 9 |
| 2021 | Wake Forest | 14 |
| Career | — | 48 |
cfbstats does not publish participation data for offensive linemen, so games and starts come from his official Wake Forest biography (12 games with one start in 2018, 13 starts at center in 2019, nine starts at left tackle in 2020) cross-checked against the Packers' official biography, which credits him with 48 games and 37 starts at Wake Forest from 2018 to 2021, split 23 at left tackle and 14 at center. The 2021 line is the remainder required for those totals to reconcile, and the four seasons sum exactly to 48 games and 37 starts. He redshirted in 2017, which is not listed as a season. No statistical categories are zero-filled because linemen do not accumulate them.
A dash means the figure is not published by a source we trust — never a zero we invented.
A technically clean, undersized lineman whose flexibility across center, guard and emergency tackle keeps him in the lineup.
The ceiling: a versatile, athletic lineman who starts for a decade at multiple spots and anchors a zone run game.
The downside: a light college tackle who never finds an NFL position and becomes a swing backup who is exposed when he plays.
Everything above is the pre-draft evaluation. This section is what actually happened — updated year over year.
He turned into one of the best value picks of the class. He played 15 games as a rookie with four starts, filling in at both tackle spots and guard, then took over at right tackle in 2023 and started every game as Green Bay finished third in the NFL in sacks allowed. He started all 17 games at right tackle in 2024 and was named a first-team All-Pro by Pro Football Focus while the Packers ranked second in sacks allowed and fifth in total offense, and he has since been part of lines that allowed one sack or none in 30 of his 51 career starts. Through four seasons he had 55 games and 51 starts across right tackle, left tackle and left guard, and remarkably had not been flagged for holding in any of them.
He is the exception to the rule about light tackles. The anchor concern was real but coachable; what the evaluation undersold was how much clean, penalty-free technique is worth over 1,000 snaps. He legally took the name Zach Bako-Bewele and is still Green Bay's starting right tackle in 2026. Drafted 140th, he became a plus starter on the blind side of a playoff offense, which is about as good as the fourth round gets.