Career-Best Play: Quay Walker Reaches New Heights, Playing Best Football of…
You’re familiar with the history of the linebacker position for the Green Bay Packers.
A position once personified by Ray Nitschke was largely a barren wasteland under the stewardship of Ted Thompson and Brian Gutekunst.
Jamari Lattimore, Brad Jones and Blake Martinez are some of the names who stood where Nitschke once did.
There were times under Dom Capers when the Packers would use safeties Morgan Burnett or Sean Richardson as linebackers to slow down opposing passing games.
The results were dismal. The Packers never found a long-term solution at linebacker.
While some of the league’s best defenses have boasted players like Fred Warner in San Francisco or Bobby Wagner in Seattle, the Packers never were able to find someone who resembled those impact players.
The position, despite Gutekunst’s objection, appeared to be devalued in Green Bay.
That changed going into March 2022.
The Packers signed veteran De’Vondre Campbell to a one-year contract in June 2021, and he responded with a surprise first-team All-Pro season.
In free agency the following offseason, the Packers rewarded Campbell with a big contact. That was the first sign of a change in the way they looked at that position.
The second came a month later during the draft.
Armed with the 22nd pick of the first round, the Packers selected Quay Walker.
The hope from Gutekunst was attempting to replicate some of the success the 49ers and Tampa Bay Buccaneers had with their linebacker-centric defenses.
Walker was athletic but raw coming into the NFL.
The physical tools, however, were incredibly enticing.
Through his first two seasons, however, Walker rarely gave glimpses into the type of player he could become.
His rookie season is mostly remembered for being ejected from two games for shoving opposing team personnel.
His second season started with a bang, with Walker recording a pick-six in the team’s first game in Chicago.
That was the last of his impact plays in 2023. Walker struggled for most of the season. While the box-score stats looked great as he led the team in tackles for the second consecutive season, he had one interception and zero forced fumbles. The impact plays simply were not there.
This offseason, coach Matt LaFleur hired Jeff Hafley as his new defensive coordinator with an eye toward getting the best out of Walker.
