Tag: rasheed walker

Green Bay Packers left tackle Rasheed Walker has embraced the challenge presented by the arrival of Jordan Morgan, the team’s first-round pick.

Coach Matt LaFleur said Walker “didn’t say anything” after the Packers took Morgan at No. 25 overall in April’s draft and instead got to work.

“He’s come in with the right mindset,” LaFleur said Wednesday. “He’s been a guy that’s been totally locked in and totally dialed in (during the offseason workout program).”

Walker, a 2022 seventh-round pick, started 15 regular season games and two postseason games for the Packers in 2023. He went through the typical ups and downs of a first-year starter but eventually settled in and was terrific to end the season.

During his first nine games, Walker allowed 20 pressures and committed seven penalties. At one point, the Packers went to a rotation at left tackle. Over the final 10 games, however, Walker allowed 16 pressures and committed only three penalties while re-establishing himself as the full-time starter. At Pro Football Focus, Walker’s overall grade and pass-blocking grade both improved dramatically over the second half of the season.

Always in search of improvement and competition, especially at a premium position, the Packers used a first-round pick on Morgan, an experienced left tackle from Arizona who will get a chance to compete to play at tackle as a rookie.

Despite his starting experience and improvement to end 2023, Walker will need to win his job back at left tackle in 2024.

“I think competition brings out the best in everybody,” LaFleur said.

LaFleur has been especially happy with Walker’s response to the circumstances. Instead of shying away from the competition, Walker has tackled it head on.

“There’s only two ways you can go about it, and I think he’s chosen the right way.”

While Morgan is getting an opportunity to compete at left tackle, he’s also played snaps at left guard and right tackle during the offseason workout program.

It’s a big offseason for left tackle Rasheed Walker, but he’s a player that the Green Bay Packers are confident in heading into 2024.

With David Bakhtiari’s season cut shot, Walker was thrown into the fire, so to speak. As should have been expected, it was an up-and-down season for the 2022 seventh-round pick, who was getting his first taste of NFL playing time.

Walker finished the season allowing six sacks and 36 pressures. He ranked 35th out of 50 eligible tackles in PFF’s pass-blocking efficiency metric and 41st in run-blocking grade.

“I thought he had a really good year,” said Matt LaFleur at the NFL Owners’ Meetings. “I think there’s a lot of room for improvement, just in terms of a consistency standpoint. You know, playing 70 plays at a high level. We’ve seen some great flashes from him. He’s certainly athletic enough to do it. So it’s going to be a big offseason for him, but he’s a guy we’re certainly confident in.”

The numbers above further illustrate those consistency issues LaFleur had mentioned. In fact, in Week 9, the Packers began a rotation at left tackle, as well as right guard, which resulted in increased competition and therefore elevated play across the entire offensive line.

That rotation between Walker and Yosh Nijman went on for six games, with Walker continually proving along the way that he should be the preferred starter.

In the Packers’ final six games, which include the two playoff games, Walker allowed only one sack and nine pressures. He would rank 10th in pass-blocking efficiency and 29th in run-blocking grade.

“I think just him, his pad level, using his hands,” said Adam Stenavich late last season on where Walker has improved the most. “Just how he’s balanced when he pass sets and stuff like that. I think he’s made a lot of strides there. And then in the run game too. Being a physical player coming off the ball. I think he’s starting to take off.”

Walker will enter training camp as the favorite to start at left tackle for the Packers this season. However, this doesn’t feel like a job that is going to just be handed to him, either.

GM Brian Gutekunst has mentioned on numerous occasions this offseason the importance of creating competition within each position group–and that concept applies to offensive tackle as well.

The Packers have spent the last two years developing Caleb Jones and Luke Tenuta. I’m sure the hope is that at least one of them can help create that competition at tackle and prove to be a capable backup option.

With that said, I doubt Gutekunst is going to solely rely on an undrafted rookie and a late round pick with almost no combined NFL experience to provide that. This also happens to be a rich draft class at the tackle position. It feels almost inevitable that the Packers are going to add to tackle in the draft and do so somewhat early on.

Even with adding to the tackle room, that doesn’t mean that Walker won’t be the starter come Week 1, but he’s likely going to have to earn it again and show the growth that he’s made from his first season as a starter heading into what hopefully becomes his second season as a starter.

“He’s done a great job,” added Stenavich. “You can see he’s got the physical tools, the athleticism, moves well in space. I just think he needs to be more consistent with his mental approach. But there’s a lot of growth still there with Rasheed. You can definitely see he has the tools to play on the edge and be pretty effective.”

The left tackle rotation for the Green Bay Packers has tapered off in recent weeks with the elevated play of Rasheed Walker, who saw 100 percent of the offensive snaps in Carolina.

The rotation at left tackle, as well as right guard, really started for the Packers back in Week 9. At the time, it was a healthy 50/50 split in terms of snaps between Walker and Yosh Nijman, with the two alternating series at one point.

Although rotating among a position group where continuity is important is somewhat unconventional, the decision to do so created additional competition and elevated the play of the entire offensive line unit.

“It’s created competition, and everybody in that room is getting better because of the competition,” said offensive line coach Luke Butkus prior to the Carolina game. “Am I happy with it? Definitely. I think everybody is buying in, seeing it, and competing their butt off every week. Just trying to get better, and that’s our goal, to get better every week.”

However, over the last three games, that snap count pendulum has swung in Walker’s direction. Coming into Week 16, Nijman had averaged just over 14 snaps during the previous three-game stretch and didn’t see the field at all against Carolina.

More than anything, this result is a product of how well Walker has been playing as of late. Over the last four weeks, Walker has surrendered just one sack and seven pressures, including only two in the last two weeks. He has done this while going up against some blitz-heavy defenses as well.

Andy Herman, owner of the Pack-A-Day podcast, grades every play for every Packers player over the course of the season. With zero considered neutral, Walker had a grade of -4.35 from Weeks 1 through 10, but from Weeks 11 through 15, he graded out positively by Herman’s metrics at +1.80–illustrating the growth and strides he has made this season.

“At the beginning of the year,” said offensive coordinator Adam Stenavich last week, “there was always a false start penalty or a mental lapse, and he’s done a lot better job recently controlling those. I think he’s become a more veteran player. More dialed into certain situations that are happening.

“I’m fired up about Rasheed and what he’s been doing on the field. He plays hard. He’s got really good athleticism. All he just needs is the game reps, and he’ll be a left tackle in the NFL.”

In general, the improved play of the entire offensive line unit over the second half of the season has been a catalyst behind the offense’s overall success. Although not dominant, Green Bay has been able to lean on the run game more, opening up opportunities in the passing game, and Jordan Love has been able to throw from a clean pocket on 68 percent of his dropbacks, the ninth-best rate in football since Week 9.

We will see if the Packers’ decision to give all the left tackle snaps to Walker was just a one-off or if he will be taking all of the offensive snaps over the final two games. Based on how he’s played over the last month-plus, the latter should be the answer.

At one point through the early and middle portion of the season, the future of the tackle position was very much an unknown, and it looked like it almost certainly was going to have to be an early-round selection for the Packers in the upcoming draft.

Perhaps that still ends up happening; it is a deep offensive tackle draft class, but with Walker’s recent play and Zach Tom at right tackle, it does appear that Green Bay could have some flexibility in that regard, where taking a tackle is more of a luxury rather than a must.

Being asked to step in for an All-Pro left tackle is a tough spot to be in when you’re a seventh-round pick in Year 2. However, that is precisely where Rasheed Walker found himself when David Bakhtiari was placed on season-ending injured reserve on September 28. Early in the season, Walker struggled with consistency, but lately, he has been one of the best offensive tackles in the NFL.

Initially, after not logging a single offensive snap as a rookie, the 249th overall pick out of Penn State in 2022 looked like he belonged. In his first two career starts, Walker did not surrender a single sack and allowed just two quarterback pressures, according to Pro Football Focus. At the time, NFL Next Gen Stats also ranked him 2nd among offensive tackles in run block win rate.

Unfortunately, Walker’s play began to slip over the next four games. In Green Bay’s Week 4 loss to the Detroit Lions, he gave up two sacks and four pressures. Then it reached a breaking point in Week 8 against the Minnesota Vikings when Walker played only 18 snaps but gave up a sack and was called for an ineligible man downfield penalty that negated a first down. Halfway through the second quarter, he was benched for Yosh Nijman.

The following week, the team left it open for who would start at left tackle against the Los Angeles Rams. Nijman got the nod but ended up splitting time with Walker, who delivered one of his better performances of the year. Since then, the coaching staff has continued to rotate Walker and Nijman and Jon Runyan and Sean Rhyan at right guard to encourage competition and bring the best out of their players.

So far, it appears to be working. The Packers managed to win four out of five games between Weeks 9 and 13, including massive upsets against the Detroit Lions and Kansas City Chiefs. During that stretch, Jordan Love and the offense looked much-improved thanks in part to more stability from the offensive line.

“I think that’s what’s helping a little bit,” offensive line coach Luke Butkus said of rotation players after a 29-22 win over the Lions on Thanksgiving. “Guys are feeling that, and everybody works their butts off, there’s no question about that, but this competition, building this room off of competition, everybody stepped up. Not just Sheed (Rasheed Walker), not just Yosh (Nijman), but JR (Jon Runyan) and Sean Rhyan. It’s been great for the room.

It’s been incredibly beneficial for Walker.

While Green Bay has lost two in a row amid a final push for the playoffs, Walker has been lights out in his past five appearances. Per PFF, he ranks third among all tackles in offensive grade between Weeks 11 and 15. Only Detroit’s Penei Sewell and future Hall of Famer Trent Williams have graded better.

In the most recent crushing defeat at the hands of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Walker was not only PFF’s highest-graded player on the Packers’ offense but also the highest-graded tackle for Week 15.

For a player with limited expectations coming out of college, Walker’s growth throughout his second season has been a positive development for a team trying to figure out which players will be a part of the roster foundation moving forward. The jury is still on whether Bakhtiari will return in 2024, but Walker is starting to look like the left tackle of the future.