Timing is important for linebackers. You have to know when to make your move, line up that gap, and deliver a hit just at the right moment. It’s a huge part of the position.
Timing, unfortunately, appears to be working against Quay Walker — at least as far as his chances of staying in Green Bay are concerned.
Walker had, by and large, the best year of his career in 2025. He put up a career-high 128 missed tackles in the regular season and, according to Pro Football Focus, missed a career-low 6.7% of his tackle attempts. He also posted career highs in quarterback hits (7) while posting the second-highest totals of his career in tackles for loss and passes defensed.
All this while he missed three games, two due to injury and one in Week 18 when the Packers sat everyone they possibly could in hopes of keeping the roster healthy for the playoffs.
Now Walker is heading for unrestricted free agency. That’s great news for Walker, and a headache for the Packers.
As a first round pick, Walker had a fifth-year team option baked into his contract. But fifth-year option decisions are decided after a player’s third year. As a 2022 first round pick, the Packers had to decide on Walker’s fifth-year option after the 2024 season, which is what makes the timing a bummer.
Walker’s option would have had him on the books for a fully guaranteed salary of $14.7 million in 2026. Given what the Packers had seen from him over his first three years in the NFL, I think it’s reasonable that they decided they weren’t interested. That contract would have made him one of the higher-paid linebackers in the NFL, and he hadn’t justified that kind of salary to that point.
But since then, the linebacker market has moved a bit, and Walker has improved. Today, there are 16 linebackers with double-digit cap hits on the books for 2026, and that’s before we even get to free agency. $14.7 million would have slotted Walker as the eighth-highest paid linebacker (by cap hit) in the NFL as of today.
I think had Walker had a year like he did this year in 2024, the fifth-year option would have been a no-brainer. Now, he looks to have bloomed a year too late. The Packers now have the unenviable choice of deciding whether to pony up an even more expensive contract for a player who may be finally figuring it out, or watching him leave in free agency. Them’s the breaks sometimes, but that doesn’t make it any more fun. Timing, as it turns out, can work against linebackers, too.