We’ve officially made it to the month of the 2022 NFL Draft, and in over three weeks, the Jacksonville Jaguars will be leading the draft order if they choose to keep the No. 1 overall pick.
Most expect them to use it on Michigan’s Aidan Hutchinson, but there are no guarantees in the NFL, and others can’t be ruled out. As of the last week, some have come out to say that Georgia defensive lineman Travon Walker could be the pick for the Jags after he helped propel the Bulldogs to a national championship win.
Walker was a versatile player for Georgia who moved all around their defense, and he ended the 2021 season with 37 total tackles and six sacks. And when popping on the film, there is a lot to be impressed with when looking at how he can affect the passer.
ESPN draft analyst Todd McShay is one of the nation’s experts who is high on Walker just as some scouts are in the NFL. But despite that, he doesn’t believe he’ll be the pick at No. 1 as some have speculated.
In a recent conference call, Jags Wire asked McShay about the possibility of Walker going first, and though he personally thinks the pick will be Hutchinson, he explained what scouts love about the former Georgia Bulldog.
“Yeah, I don’t think that [Walker being pick No. 1] will be the case, but to your point, if it were to hypothetically happen it would be because of traits,” McShay said. “You got Travon Walker, he’s 6-5, 272 pounds, with 35.5-inch arm length, which for people who don’t study this and aren’t crazy like myself, that’s a great left tackle [for comparison]. That’s rare to see a defensive end with that kind of arm length, and it’s so important when you’re keeping defenders off your pads and all of that.
“I don’t think there is a player that generates more power from the ground up, meaning he doesn’t have to have momentum to reach a level of power where he can jack offensive linemen up.”
These are exactly the type of traits that Jaguars general manager Trent Baalke likes, especially when it comes to arm length. In fact, he once referenced this when discussing what made Aldon Smith, a former first-round pick of his, a good player.
“Usually when you see defensive ends or pass rushers with the long arms, they’re not too strong with it, they have the long arms to kind of get your hands off of them,” Baalke said. “But with Aldon, he’s strong, too, so that he can really use them as an advantage. Those things are real long. He put one on me the other day and I was like fully extended and I couldn’t even touch his body.”
Not only does his reach show up on tape as McShay said, but the explosion does, too. There were plays where he’d be in one-on-one tackling situations and would explode through the ball carrier with ease.
McShay was also sure to share why some have concerns with Walker, too. Of course, one of the most obvious things that he’s been criticized for is his sack numbers. Some don’t like his flexibility, either, but neither of those issues concerns McShay when it comes to Walker being a good NFL player.
“Now, everyone is going to point to the negatives that he didn’t have great sacks numbers, and I get it, and it’s there,” he said. “Yeah, he’s not your classical bend-the-edge, torso, flexibility guy, but he’s more so power and straight-line power. But there is a lot of guys in the league [like him], probably more so than the finesse flexibility, and speed guys off the edge that are double-digit sack players in the league.
“He played in a system where everything was about ‘do your job, gap discipline, let our linebackers go make the plays, clog everything up front.’ So he wasn’t asked to do that [rush the quarterback] a lot. He was also dropping in coverage at times, they were reducing him inside as a defensive tackle on some passing downs. I think that when you line him up as a pure edge and let him get after the quarterback, his production numbers are going to be a lot better in the NFL than they were in college.”
McShay added that he was struggling to establish who would be his No. 2 edge rusher behind Aidan Hutchinson between Walker and Kayvon Thibodeaux of Oregon. He added that it wouldn’t shock him if any team from the top-2 to top-5 range snagged Walker.
Time will tell what the Jags decide to do with the first overall pick. Right now, most seem to think Hutchinson is the front-runner, but it wouldn’t be surprising if the gap between the two in terms of grades is smaller than many thought.