Walker Will Be Hard To Unseat

Rasheed Walker refuses to become an afterthought.  He will not accept the role of interim caretaker of the coveted left tackle position for the Green Bay Packers.  He’s had to fight, scratch and claw for every opportunity to play, and he intends to keep playing.  The fact the Packers used their first round draft choice on a left tackle is not going to change his resolve.  In fact, it may strengthen it. 

“He’s come in with the right mindset,” Matt LaFleur told the beat writers.  “’Sheed didn’t say anything after the draft.  He just came in and got to work, and that’s what we’re looking for.” 

No one on the team is surprised.  The former Penn State standout is one of the hardest workers on the team.  He’s had to be.  Coming out of college as a redshirt junior, he was passed over through six rounds of the NFL draft.  The Packers finally called his name with the 249th pick in the seventh round.  Green Bay had four selections in the final round that year, and Walker was the third of those four selections.  Most teams are just throwing darts at players with good measurables at that stage of the draft, hoping to hit on a diamond in the rough.  Walker was determined to be that diamond. 

It took patience.  The 24 year old made the team, but never saw the field as the season unfolded.  Finally, he received a December 25th Christmas present when he actually got to play in a week sixteen victory over the Dolphins.  He played four special teams snaps.  That was it.  That was his season. 

Some players might have given up, but Walker came back even more determined in 2023.  Nobody likes to further his career at the expense of injury to a fellow player, but in pro football it’s a fact of life that many stellar careers begin that way.  So it was with Rasheed.  When the Packers decided it was time to move on from David Bakhtiari, due largely to his nagging injury issues, the team needed somebody to step up at left tackle.  Even then, Walker had stiff competition for the job.  The team had been grooming Yosh Nijman to man that spot on the offensive line for more than a year.  Throughout the season, Walker could not win the coaches over to playing him full time.  He had to endure a rotation with Nijman, and it felt like an audition each week. 

“My whole thing was I just wasn’t going to quit. I could have had a bad attitude, and been like, ‘Man this is BS, I shouldn’t have got benched.’ But I just took advantage of the opportunity to get better, and when I got my next opportunity I just (had to) prove to myself and to everybody that I could play,” Walker said via the Green Bay Packers official website. 

When the team hit its stride at the end of the campaign, Walker finally appeared to win the job.  He played left tackle full time in the playoff games against the Cowboys and 49ers.  Nijman was allowed to walk in free agency.  Finally, Walker could breathe easy, right? 

Wrong.  Along comes the draft, and with his very first pick, Brian Gutekunst tabs Arizona tackle Jordan Morgan.  “He’s a left tackle,” Gutey said.  “He has left tackle feet.”  While also stating he felt the rookie could play across the O-line, Gutey made it clear that the Packers will first see if Morgan can compete for the left tackle slot. 

But to do that, he’s going to have to beat out Walker.  And LaFleur made it clear that is not going to be easy to do.  “He’s (Walker) been a guy that has been totally locked in and dialed in,” the head coach revealed.  “It’s been amazing to see the growth and maturation from when he was a rookie to where he is now.  I think it’s night and day.” 

One of the most interesting storylines of the coming training camp will be the battle for starting jobs on the O-line.  And when it comes to left tackle, Rasheed Walker has come into OTAs undaunted at a first round pick breathing down his neck.  “You always wonder about that (how the player will react)”, says LaFleur.  “There’s only two ways you can go about it, and I think he’s chosen the right way.” 

Walker certainly wasn’t perfect at his critical position last season, but the Packers won some big games with him as the quarterback’s blind side protector.  He is determined to show the coaches it was no fluke.  I wouldn’t bet against him.  Jordan Morgan may have to find some other position to play.