Lol… I think it’s going to be Thibs or Willis, and most likely Thibs.
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I think it’s a bad comparison because Parsons was a beast in college. He was the best defensive player in the draft. The concerns on Parsons stemmed off rumors. Nothing more. Thibs situation is closer to Parson than Walker’s is.
I don’t think It’s the same comparison. I liked Ziggy in college because he stood out. He was consistently disruptive and a beast of a player but they moved him around a lot which hurt his development. He also hadn’t played the game very long so being under developed made sense. Ziggy also had the bend you want in a pass rusher. Walker does not. He’s stiff.
Walker is athletic for his size but he took most of his snaps on passing downs. He lined up at different spots along the line but his assignments were the same. Fill a gap and get after the QB. Yet he didn’t consistently shine at doing that. Sure he had some moments but he also had plenty of times where he was a non factor. Walker has been playing football a long enough time that he should be more developed. (Unlike Ziggy) My biggest concern with Walker however is he’s stiff. Watch some Walker tape and watch some Rashan Gary tape and you’ll see they are both stiff pass rusher. Their athletic profile is near identical too. Similar players, similar athletic abilities but Gary was a more developed player than Walker is.
I don’t hate Walker. I think he can have NFL success but he’s a developmental player who came off a well coach defense. Which begs the question of why he isn’t more developed?…. His bust factor is much higher than Thibs and Johnson.
If Walker hadn’t tested so well no one would be talking about him in the top 10.
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75% of his snaps came in passing situations. They brought him in primarily on passing downs.
I went back and watched a bunch of his games to see how Georgia was using him and to get a better feel for him since so much was being said about him that was conflicting. Here’s what I saw.
Early on Georgia was using him primarily as a Penetrating DT. But he was consistently ran directly at and didn’t wrap up the RB letting them slip buy. He had several times where he got to the QB but failed to wrap them up as well. (This problem continued through his 3 years) I find it funny that a lot of scouting reports claim he’s a good run defender because I don’t see it. Is he terrible? No…. But he’s definitely not great at it and that’s why Georgia took him out in obvious running situations.
Last season (After Johnson left) he slimmed down and lost 20 lbs and was used more on the edge. Yet he still took 75% snaps on passing downs. On a rare occasion he would drop back into a soft zone coverage but 99% of the time he was a penetrating DL or Edge guy.
When a guy is asked to get after it 75% of the time his stats should reflect that. They don’t because he’s stiff and he struggles to wrap up at times.
Personally I think he makes a better DT than a DE. He’s too stiff for the outside. He has the frame and ability to add weight and I think he should.
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Interesting findings. That’s for taking the time to go over it and write it up.
There was talk around here about Walker being a top 10 pick before the combine… and @Thats2 even predicted he would blow up the combine.
To be very precise… a lot of the attention he is getting here started when he was beating up UofM in the playoff game….
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The “lesson learned” from past drafts is to never take a LB in the top 10 unless he can rush the passer. Parsons could rush the passer, and even line up wide and try to cover receivers. He was the total package.
He was a defensive end that Penn State stood up as a linebacker. I never understood the people who questioned him as a pass rusher or edge player.
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Micah Parsons has 31.5" arms. I’m surprised he’s able to tie his own shoes with those arms.
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I had a girlfriend once who complained about how she wanted to sleep on her stomach but her boobs were too big.
One of the things that appeals to me about Walker is I feel like he sort of fits into what Campbell said earlier on the 4-3 defense. I know many have dismissed those comments as overblown, and I could just be seeing what I want to see, but I think it makes more sense if he is thinking about Travon Walker and Nakobe Dean. Walker’s best fit IMO is a traditional 4-3 DE. But he is also going to be able to slide inside on passing downs which gives us some versatility. I also think Dean can be a great LB, but he’ll need to be covered up well as he isn’t that big.
yeah… this is a GREAT point.
If Parsons wasn’t asked to rush the passer in Dallas… and he didn’t have 13 sacks… but was used as an off-ball LB… he wouldn’t be getting as much attention. I haven’t watched every game Dallas played, but in the Carolina game I saw… Parsons was practically invisible when utilized as an off-ball LB. He didn’t show much in coverage, had fairly slow recognition in the run game, and struggled to avoid blocks when he wasn’t sent on a blitz.
But… when he was lined up as an edge, or even sent on A gap blitzes, he was a game wrecker.
I wouldn’t be surprised if he plays most of his snaps as an edge rusher from now on… especially after they lost Randy Gregory.
I do wonder… if a team would have drafted him in the top 10 of a stacked draft last year… and said day #1 that he would be an “edge”… would that team have been criticized for drafting a guy with short arms (for an edge) who had modest production as a pass rusher (6.5 career sacks in college)???
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We are living in a weird alternate universe where people are questioning whether a kids hands are too small to play QB in Pittsburgh…when the kid played his college football in Pittsburgh. So I never underestimate what people are capable of criticizing.
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I read that Pickett fumbled 38 times at Pitt, lost 26. Not encouraging haha
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Great work @Phunnypharm! I knew there were a number of us who had been on Travon Walker well before the hype train left Combine Station.
Doesn’t mean Walker is going to become Bruce Smith, Aaron Donald or Reggie White, but it DOES show we were seeing premium traits live, in-game that jumped out and screamed “potential stud” well before the amazing numbers he put up in Indy. Very interesting. Thanks for finding this my man!
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When I watch Walker, I think “at worst” he’s Ziggy Ansah or Trey Flowers. That’s his floor. And hopefully a healthy one that isn’t 42 years old. Its rare to see a DE be able to hold up against big OTs, no matter what they do. The ability to one arm an OT stands out. But when he confidently one armed a top 10 pick at OT like it wasn’t a big deal, that got my attention.
I think Walker brings high level run and containment traits to the edge, with pass rush upside due to the physical traits. Kind of like Ziggy. Anyone who watched Ziggy saw an unusually powerful person. And going back to your Aaron Donald comparison, that’s how I felt watching his film years ago. They consistently stick out as being “not normal” in the power department.
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Plenty of short-area power on display here…
Yes. That’s the one. That woke me up to Walker. Outrageous.
I think his floor is much lower than that.
He’s a lesser version of Rashan Gary. I think that’s the perfect pro comp for him.
That’s not to say his career will be similar but their nearly the same player coming out.
Similar deficiencies.
Similar skill sets.
Similar physical attributes.
Similar ceilings.
Therefore similar floors.
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Riley Reiff hooked him up with his cobbler.
