Round 1 Pick 22; Quay Walker, LB Georgia

[{Family Ghost}]

On 5/8/2022 at 3:59 PM, St Vince said:

I heard because he can play inside and outside. Lloyd plays inside only. Walker will be like our Parsons, who can play inside and be a situational edge rusher.

He's got a chance to be an extremely fun player to watch on game days.  I was surprised by the pick, but I've come around on it .. he's a good fit for what they want to do on defense.

Edited May 10, 2022 by {Family Ghost}

[craig]

In interview this weekend, Qway was asked about inside/outside.  He said inside, with no hesitation and no nuancing it.  

What he might be come November and in his pro-bowl seasons future , that may change.  But I don't think they're going to overcomplicate it for him, at least to start with.  ILB will probably be more than enough complexity for him for a while.   

[Brat&Beer]

DeVondre Campbell getting on the Walker bandwagon. 

Quote

De'Vondre Campbell

I try to help and give as much advice as I can even though he doesn’t really need it he already a baller . Very smart Young Man with a great future ahead of him

 

[Arthur Penske]

On 4/28/2022 at 9:42 PM, Old Guy said:

I'm going positive on this one. The kid is going to be our version of Micah Parsons. Similar size and athleticism. 

Is he going to be used quite a bit to rush the passer? Parsons is Parsons but have to wonder if Gute and Co saw what he did and wanted someone of their own. I have no idea if walker can do it?

[Cpdaly23]

1 hour ago, Arthur Penske said:

Is he going to be used quite a bit to rush the passer? Parsons is Parsons but have to wonder if Gute and Co saw what he did and wanted someone of their own. I have no idea if walker can do it?

I think poor man’s parsons, yes.  Stresses offenses by allowing the same personnel groups to stay on field yet be multiple.  Helps combat the Shanahan/McVay/LaFleur offenses that try to do the same on the other side of the ball. 

[Old Guy]

2 hours ago, Arthur Penske said:

Is he going to be used quite a bit to rush the passer? Parsons is Parsons but have to wonder if Gute and Co saw what he did and wanted someone of their own. I have no idea if walker can do it?

No idea! He's got burst, athleticism and size. My comment was obviously a tad hyperbolic, but I think this kid, if given the chance to blitz, could produce a decent number of pressures and sacks. 

[Brat&Beer]

He has the length to line up at Edge, but might be better blitzing from an off the ball position. (Second video)

 

[Old Guy]

14 hours ago, Brat&Beer said:

He has the length to line up at Edge, but might be better blitzing from an off the ball position. (Second video)

 

Needs to work on the finish on that blitz. He pretty much whiffed and the QB fell down. Not a lot of NFL guys go down on that play. 

Edited July 20, 2022 by Old Guy

[Brat&Beer]

You're  right. His technique was bad. But  the speed he showed from an off the ball position was impressive.

[vegas492]

18 hours ago, Arthur Penske said:

Is he going to be used quite a bit to rush the passer? Parsons is Parsons but have to wonder if Gute and Co saw what he did and wanted someone of their own. I have no idea if walker can do it?

From his college tape, I didn't think he could rush the Edge.  Blitzing?  Different story.

Then I saw a couple reps at a mini-camp.  The guy has those really long arms and was very quick off of the line and actually showed great bend.  I now think that there is a good chance that he can rush the EDGE if he is asked.  I think he has the athletic ability to do it and do it well.

You might remember the clips, Quay was lined up in a 3 point stance.  He had to rip a dummy and then turn a little corner and launch into another dummy (QB).  Dude was really quick with feet and hands.  Had great balance and turned the corner quickly and with ease.

I hope we see it in the pre-season.

[PossibleCabbage]

I think part of "Quay's not a pass rusher" is because the Packers really prefer the bigger, edge-setting types at OLB, and Quay's not really the guy you want trying to set an edge over and over again throughout the game.  In a pass rushing capacity though, I think he can win in any gap.  He's just the guy that tackles the RB, not the guy who removes blockers from the equation.

It's sort of like how even if you drop your DT in a zone blitz, you don't really want to say your nose tackle can "play coverage" since his job in his pass drop is "be somewhere the QB isn't expecting a defender to be."

Edited July 20, 2022 by PossibleCabbage

[ThatJerkDave]

 

[Refugee]

I’m liking everything I see from Quay. Movement, shedding blocks, physicality, coverage. His instincts seem sound and he already gets into every play but when his confidence goes up with reps, I think he could become a real terror out there even as a rookie. Keep it up, youngster!

[{Family Ghost}]

10 hours ago, Refugee said:

I’m liking everything I see from Quay. Movement, shedding blocks, physicality, coverage. His instincts seem sound and he already gets into every play but when his confidence goes up with reps, I think he could become a real terror out there even as a rookie. Keep it up, youngster!

I could see this .. his sideline to sideline speed is impactful.  He basically kept Fields out of the endzone last night along the sidelines due to elite speed.  That was a huge play.  I think he needs to get more decisive in the run game, but that will come.  I think he's going to be a terror in this league when it all comes together.  He should be really damn good during our stretch run to the playoffs.

[MrBobGray]

I think I've figured out my biggest issue with Quay in his snaps thus far.  I'm not going to pretend I watched anything of him from Georgia besides some youtube cut-ups, but from what I saw they lined him up outside the formation a lot and trusted his athleticism would bring him to the play.  When he is playing from a more traditional alignment, he plays back off the line and just beats the OL to the spot with speed.  He plays LB like a converted safety, someone who's used to making iso tackles in the open field and being too big for receivers to block and too fast for OL to get hands on.  Problem is this is the NFL, and while he's a freak, so are most players to a degree and thus technique becomes paramount.  I'm only in the 1st quarter of the Bears game, but through ~5 quarters of football I don't know that I've seen him scrape down to the hole a single time. 

Good example is Montgomery's 2nd run of the game, for 12 yards.  Walker has the front side A gap although he's aligned at the backside 10 when the play starts.  He's got responsibility there first, but when Montgomery cuts back away from it his job becomes to scrape to the hole and either fill it and force the RB to the alley or make the tackle, depending on where the hole is.  It all goes well at first: he follows Montgomery with his eyes, slides back to the cutback, and is right there for what could be a two yard loss.  Instead he hesitates trying to watch both the gap he's in and the gap Lowry is closing off with the body of the OT and gets wiped out by a perfectly timed crack back from #19.  The problem here is he's about a yard and a half off the LoS.  If you watch Campbell on the same play, as he tracks the back and tries to find a crease to shoot/fill he makes small adjustments forward as he shuffles so he's right off the back of his DL; his gap is filled and it's difficult to get a block on him because there's no real aiming point for the OL/perimeter blockers.  But Quay is so far back that he's just standing alone in space and it lets the receiver get him flush and just level him.  He's waiting for the play to come to him, but I think he's doing it because he's so used to trying to read the play from 10 yards back instead of at the LoS.  He can still show presence in the B gap from a step closer, then as soon as the RB disappears from view fire off Dean's back hip and ta-da! You're right in the RBs hip pocket squared up, and the receiver never even gets a chance at a block.

Now to be clear, neither Jaire nor Preston plays this one well either, so this is a group effort failure at run defense.  But this has been a consistent issue with his play on almost every run fit I've seen from him, and frankly it makes sense given his usage in college.  He's hardly the first college LB/Athlete to be lacking in fundamentals because he's never needed them.  He just needs to really work on trying to press his gap in the run game more aggressively when he's made his read.