Rasheed Walker ends his Packers tenure with a thud
In the 2015 playoffs, Nick Perry had the game of his life. Facing future Hall of Fame left tackle Trent Williams, Perry racked up 2.5 sacks in a Packers victory. It was an opportune time for such a performance, considering he was set to be a free agent in the offseason.
Perry was ultimately rewarded for his performance, signing a big contract extension with the Packers, and it’s hard to think his big day against Williams wasn’t at least partly responsible.
Whatever the case may actually be, what Rasheed Walker did against the Chicago Bears was the opposite of Perry’s performance. After holding down the Packers’ starting left tackle job for more than two seasons, Walker was poised to leave the Packers this offseason and reap the benefits of being the rare starting left tackle to hit true free agency.
But then, he went out and laid an absolute egg. He allowed a season-high six pressures and was penalized twice. According to Pro Football Focus, it was his worst pass-blocking performance of the season, earning a grade of just 37.2 on a 100-point scale. Walker didn’t get a grade under 44 throughout the rest of the season, and he only had two other games under 50.
It’s disappointing as a fan of the Packers and of good stories to see things end this way. Walker, a 2022 seventh-round pick, has had to scratch and claw to get to this point. A well-decorated player at Penn State, Walker slid in the draft and barely appeared as a rookie. In his second season, he found himself in the limelight after David Bakhtiari’s season and career came to an end after just one game, but responded well — only to face an in-season position battle with Yosh Nijman, viewed by many (me included) as the incumbent backup at the position.
Walker prevailed and nailed down the starting job by the end of the year — only for the Packers to select athletic tackle prospect Jordan Morgan in the first round of the 2024 NFL Draft. It looked like Walker would be back to the drawing board again, but he once again held down the left tackle spot, starting every game there in 2024 before again holding off Morgan in the 2025 preseason.
As far as underdog stories go, that’s a good one, and I was rooting for Walker big time this year. The writing seemed to be on the wall from the start as far as his departure from Green Bay, but provided he played well in 2025, he could cash in big. That would have been a clear player/fan/team win, but it wasn’t in the cards. Now all that remains is seeing what kind of market there actually turns out to be for Walker’s services, and it’s hard to think it won’t be a depressed one given the way things ended.