Two of Green Bay’s youngest stars are getting acknowledged by analysts and fellow players
While we’ll still need to wait about a week for the Associated Press to drop their All-Pro teams, some early lists already include several Green Bay Packers. The most likely Packers candidate to make AP All-Pro this year is safety Xavier McKinney, who recorded eight interceptions in his first regular season in Green Bay since signing on with the team after starting his career with the New York Giants.
The NFL Players Association dropped their “Players’ All-Pro” on Wednesday, featuring McKinney and Baltimore’s Kyle Hamilton as First-Team All-Pro safeties. Pro Football Focus, meanwhile, named Hamilton and Detroit’s Kerby Joseph as their First-Team All-Pro safeties and gave McKinney Second-Team honors.
McKinney was the only Packer who was named to the Players’ All-Pro list, but right tackle Zach Tom surprisingly made the cut for Pro Football Focus’ First Team. With Philadelphia’s Lane Johnson making PFF’s Second Team, Detroit right tackle Penei Sewell — the Players’ All-Pro bookend — was snubbed entirely from Pro Football Focus’ list.
Here’s what PFF had to say about Tom’s 2024 season:
Tom has shown steady improvement throughout his career, and his third season out of Wake Forest was his best yet. He set career-highs with a 90.0 run-blocking grade and an 82.1 pass-blocking grade while allowing 24 pressures from 562 pass-blocking snaps.
Now that the regular season is over, Tom is eligible to receive an extension from the Packers — as they can finally offer second contracts to their 2022 class. He should command somewhere in the ballpark of $20 million per year, based on where the right tackle market is at right now. With honors starting to come in for the 25-year-old tackle, they might want to get that deal done sooner rather than later.