Green Bay Packers

How Will the Packers Handle the Quay Walker Decision?

Photo Credit: Bill Streicher-Imagn Images

As the new league year approaches, fans will start scouring websites for mock drafts and free-agent predictions to entertain themselves in the absence of real football.

Behind the scenes at 1265 Lombardi Ave., Brian Gutekunst is making a vital decision that has nothing to do with the upcoming draft class or a pending free agent. It involves his former first-round pick and the current centerpiece of his team’s defense.

He must decide if the team will pick up the fifth-year option on inside linebacker Quay Walker.

As the former 22nd-overall pick of the 2022 draft, the former Georgia Bulldog is entering his fourth professional season. With his first-round status comes the built-in fifth-year option on his rookie contract.

There are four levels of the fifth-year option, which the team must exercise after the player’s third professional season. The different levels are basic: playing time, one Pro Bowl, and multiple Pro Bowls. Based on his playing time, Walker falls under the level 2 option, and the Packers must decide whether to pick up his option by Thursday, May 2.

If they picked up that option, it would come with a fully guaranteed $16.06 million price tag for the 2026 season. That’s not a crazy high number for a young ascending player who will only be 25 when next season starts. Still, should the Packers spend that amount on a frustratingly inconsistent yet supremely talented player who plays a replaceable position?

At his year-end press conference, Gutekunst sounded like he would pick up Walker’s option. Gutekunst praised Walker:

I think Quay continued to make a leap, and he’s another guy who had struggled through injuries at the end of the year, but he was really impactful for us this year. He continues to be a great leader for us. Certainly think we would love to have him around here for longer than just a couple more years. He’s that kind of guy.

That sounds like a general manager who wants to keep his first-round pick in the fold. While Walker is undoubtedly a talented young player, he has often been the subject of criticism from the fanbase, who think Green Bay can and should do better than him manning the middle of their defense. But the Packers should explore keeping him in Green Bay past the 2025 season by picking up his fifth-year option.

Only three inside linebackers make more annually than that $16 million figure that Walker would earn if the Packers pick up his option: Roquan Smith, Fred Warner, and Tremaine Edmunds. I don’t think anybody would consider Walker in the same tier as Warner at this point in his career. However, Walker can make a similar impact as Smith and Edmunds.

In his first three seasons, Walker started 43 games and had 341 tackles, 6.5 sacks, three forced fumbles, and one interception that he returned for a touchdown. Despite playing only one full season, he has eclipsed the 100-tackle mark in every year of his career.

He led the team in tackles this past season, with 102, despite playing only 13 games. As the quarterback of the defense, he wore the green dot on his helmet for the past few seasons. The coaching staff trusts him to call the defensive signals, an undervalued aspect of his role. Wearing the green dot is an important responsibility, and Walker has multiple years of experience. I would expect him to don it again in 2025.

By no means is Walker a perfect player or a finished product yet. He has some glaring issues that occasionally arise on the field that he must address in the offseason. The biggest is his ability to quickly diagnose and read plays, one of the most critical aspects of an inside linebacker‘s job.

That was even more evident this season with rookie and fellow inside backer Edgerrin Cooper’s emergence. Cooper was quick to react and decisive in his angles, which Walker has struggled to do in the NFL. However, Walker has the ideal size, speed, and length for the position. Those are traits that cannot be taught. At just 25 years old, the Packers shouldn’t give up on what Walker has to offer.

Last year, Walker was a moveable chess piece in Jeff Hafley’s defensive scheme. From Weeks 12 to 14, he did a bit of everything for Green Bay’s defense. In that three-game stretch, Walker collected the second-most quarterback pressures of any linebacker in the NFL. He has a knack for creating pressure, something the Packers sorely needed at various points this past season. If Cooper can stay on the field and allow them to use Walker more in that role, his value increases.

He was finally starting to play his best football when he was healthy and on the field with Cooper. The Packers have toyed with using him more off the edge. Cooper’s emergence as their best inside linebacker should free up more options for deploying Walker around the defense to increase his value.

Players with Walker’s physical attributes and NFL experience are difficult to find. As the Packers attempt to take the next step as a club and open their championship window, their defense must stack talent up and down the roster. Based on his comments, Brian Gutekunst believes Quay Walker has that talent, and I would expect him to pick up that option and keep him in Green Bay for the foreseeable future.

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