Tag: rasheed walker

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.

With David Bakhtiari sidelined for the last two games, the Green Bay Packers turned to second-year player Rasheed Walker, who has held up well as the team’s left tackle.

Through two games as the Packers’ starting left tackle and some mop-up duty Week 1 that has consisted of 85 total pass-block snaps, Walker has allowed only two pressures, according to PFF, and no sacks. He currently ranks tied for eighth in pass-blocking efficiency out of all tackles.

While PFF’s grades are far from the be-all-end-all in player evaluation, they do help illustrate when a player is performing well or poorly. Walker is currently the 15th highest-graded pass-blocking tackle in the NFL through three games.

“He’s athletic,” said offensive coordinator Adam Stenavich. “He does not lack confidence, at all. He believes in himself and you can feel that. That coupled with just good physicality, good mentality, he’s got a lot of tools. He’s twitchy. He’s strong and he’s confident.”

Packers sophomore left tackle Rasheed Walker, the No. 250 pick in 2022:

– Back-to-back pass block grades of 75.0+
– 0 pressures allowed on True Pass Sets (only tackle with 25+ TPS snaps and 0 pressures allowed)

Packers may have done it again

— Brad Spielberger, Esq. (@PFF_Brad) September 25, 2023

You could tell there might have been some early jitters in his first start against Atlanta, where Walker was called for a false start and missed a blitz pickup in the first half, but he settled in well and very quickly. While he and the rest of the offensive line have held up well in pass protection, where this unit as a whole – and in general the entire offense – has to improve is in the run game. Through three games, moving the ball on the ground has been tough sledding for this Packers’ offense, and that can have a resulting negative impact on the passing game.

Walker was a 2022 seventh-round pick by the Packers, who was on the 53-man roster last season but inactive on Sundays. It was basically a red-shirt year for him. This summer, Walker really came out of nowhere, at least from our perspective on the outside looking in, taking over as the team’s left tackle in practice and in preseason games a few weeks into camp. It became clear quickly at that point that he had jumped Yosh Nijman on the depth chart.

With week-to-week uncertainty around Bakhtiari’s availability, it is unknown how large of a role Walker is going to play throughout the season. However, as we saw Week 1 when Bakhtiari was available, the Packers still found a way to get Walker on the field as a sixth offensive lineman, lining up like a tight end.

Zach Tom would leave the New Orleans game late in the contest with a knee injury. At this time, we don’t know how much time he will miss, if any, but if Bakhtiari is available and Tom is out at any point, perhaps the Packers would be willing to move Walker to right tackle–although throughout college and his time in Green Bay, he has primarily been on the left side.

When it comes to offensive tackle depth, there is no such thing as too much of it. Over the years, the Packers have been very good about building their offensive line unit through the draft and developing players, especially Day 3 picks. Walker appears to be the latest example of that.

“Sheed is a versatile guy,” added Stenavich. “He’s very athletic, so he does a good job out in space. I’m glad we have a role for him there and I think he’s doing a good job.”

The Green Bay Packers gave Rasheed Walker his first opportunity to start at left tackle during Saturday night’s preseason showdown with the New England Patriots, and the 2022 seventh-round pick did nothing to suggest a move back down the depth chart is coming. In fact, Walker was nothing if not solid, and he must now be considered the top option to back up David Bakhtiari at left tackle come Week 1.

Walker played 43 snaps against the Patriots, including 23 as a pass-blocker, and didn’t allow a pressure, per Pro Football Focus. He was also the offensive line’s second-highest graded run-blocker overall. The Patriots started Matthew Judon and Deatrich Wise and mixed in Josh Uche at edge rusher, but Walker held his own.

Coach Matt LaFleur said Walker earned the opportunity to start, and the Packers were excited to see how the Penn State product would hold up against starting-caliber NFL defenders.

“Rasheed had a really good week of practice and we wanted to see him. I talked to coach Belichick throughout the course of the week and had a pretty good indication that they were going to play their ones, and we wanted to see how he would respond in that situation,” LaFleur said.

How did Walker earn the opportunity? He played well during joint practices and was also excellent in the preseason opener vs. the Bengals. Over 52 pass-blocking snaps this preseason, Walker has allowed just one pressure.

Here’s Larry McCarren’s break down of Walker in Cincinnati:

"That's not just playing big, that is playing HUGE."

Larry McCarren breaks down some key blocks from @Cin5oTre3

Rock Report 🎥 pic.twitter.com/exGev3YJIP

— Green Bay Packers (@packers) August 14, 2023

Walker jumped Yosh Nijman on the depth chart at the chart. Nijman, a starter at tackle each of the last two seasons, played right tackle and was on the field into the fourth quarter.

The position battle continues at training camp. The Packers will have a regular season-like practice schedule this week before hosting the Seattle Seahawks in the preseason finale on Saturday. Can Walker stack another successful performance and win the job as Bakhtiari’s backup, an important role given the All-Pro’s knee issues?

[lawrence-related id=97352,97354]