You won’t find his name among the headlines entering the Week 1 matchup between the Green Bay Packers and Chicago Bears. Still, second-year Packers linebacker Quay Walker can insert himself into the story with his play against quarterback Justin Fields. A big game for Walker would not only bode well for the Green Bay defense, but would also let the linebacker show his maturation after an embarrassing end to his rookie season.
Whatever Fields becomes as a passer in the NFL, he still has incredible physical gifts as a runner, as evidenced by his 4.4 speed and the 1,143 yards he racked up on the ground a season ago. The Packers saw that firsthand on a 55-yard touchdown scamper by Fields in a December game at Soldier Field that put the Bears up 10-0 in the first quarter. But Walker also flashed his athleticism in the rivalry on an impressive third-and-goal stop of Fields in the September showdown between the two teams at Lambeau a season ago.
Walker’s play above came very early on in the season and showed the combination of athleticism and discipline that is necessary to play middle linebacker at this level, especially when spying on a weapon like Fields. After averaging 10.7 carries and over 76 yards per contest last season, Fields now has D.J. Moore as a part of his weaponry. It remains to be seen how former Green Bay coach Luke Getsy will use Fields as a runner as Getsy enters his second season as Chicago’s offensive coordinator. He probably will reduce the number of designed runs. However, there’s always the chance of a game-breaking play, which is exactly the type that Walker needs to be prepared for.
The discipline that Walker shows while preparing for Fields needs to be matched by the discipline Walker shows as he attempts to move past a rookie season that featured not one but two ejections. The most notable one was in the Week 18 regular-season finale loss at home to the Detroit Lions.
“To be honest with you, this entire offseason I thought about the two ejections,” Walker said at Packers training camp in July. “It was hard giving myself grace on that, but at the same time, I’ve moved past it. The past is the past, and I’m just ready to move forward and just learn from it. Of course, I can say that, but I have to do it by my actions. So I’m just ready to go from there.”
It’s a quote that doesn’t mean much without the play to back it up. Still, Green Bay fans will be happy to know that Walker was as mad at himself as the Lambeau crowd was in that disappointing January loss to the Lions. In a season that came with high expectations for the a first-round pick from the vaunted Georgia Bulldogs defense, Walker performed well. He became the first Packer in three seasons to make the All-Rookie team. Walker played in all 17 games, leading the squad with 121 total tackles.
Yet manner in which the season ended clouded the on-field strides that Walker made. Healthy, hungry, and playing calm, cool, and collected while limiting Fields’ impact in Week 1 would be a huge step in the right direction.
“I know most teams will label me a hothead, so I kind of am already preparing for what’s going to happen and things like that,” Walker said in that same July interview. “So I’ve just got to be ready for everything that’s going to come. I know it’s going to come Week 1, with it being a rivalry game [against the Bears]. Every week, teams will try to go at me, so I’m already preparing for it.”
