The Green Bay Packers still have some questions to answer on the offensive line, but Rasheed Walker is getting some love as a potential breakout candidate for the 2024 season.
Bleacher Report’s Gary Davenport shared a few underrated players ready for breakout seasons. The list included some divisional rivals like Jared Goff and Jaquan Brisker. However, Davenport also gave Walker some love.
“…[Walker’s] play improved considerably as the campaign wore on,” Davenport wrote. “Now, Walker enters the season as the unquestioned starter for a Packers team with aspirations of a deep playoff run and as the anchor for an offensive line Dallas Robinson of Pro Football Network ranked fifth in the NFL.”
While he’s a polarizing player, Walker is getting at least one major vote of confidence in the months leading up to training camp.
Rasheed Walker’s Path to a Starting Left Tackle
Expectations weren’t high for Walker at the NFL level. However, he’s now logged significant experience as a starting left tackle for the Packers.
Walker was a high school All-American and 4-star recruit in 2018. His offers included the likes of Ohio State, Notre Dame, Michigan, and Georgia. However, Walker stayed on the East Coast to play for Penn State.
Although he never became a star, Walker carved out a solid four-year career for the Nittany Lions. His career was capped off with back-to-back third-team All-Big Ten selections before going pro.
Despite declaring for the 2022 NFL Draft, Walker had to wait a lot longer than he would have liked to hear his name called. The Packers finally took him with the 249th pick in the seventh round.
That draft slot lowered expectations for Walker at the NFL level. However, he finally got his shot in 2023 when David Bakhtiari was unable to play beyond Week 1. Although he took his lumps early on, Pro Football Focus started to grade him consistently higher as the season progressed.
He may have been one of the last picks in the 2022 NFL Draft. However, Walker has now gotten at least one season as a starting left tackle under his belt, and he’s looking to have an even bigger impact in 2024.
Competition at Left Tackle
Walker may have improved his game during the 2023 season. However, he’s not guaranteed his starting spot heading into training camp.
The Packers took Jordan Morgan in the first round of this year’s draft. A three-year starter for Arizona, Morgan comes into the league with a strong athletic profile and excellent movement skills despite being slightly undersized at the tackle position.
Green Bay’s coaching staff could kick Morgan inside to guard. However, the team has already stated that they’ll let the first-round pick start out his NFL career by playing left tackle heading into training camp. Morgan even took time to clap back at critics that think he won’t be able to play on the blind side at the NFL level.
The Packers are notorious for getting their best five linemen on the field. That could mean Walker switches to right tackle. However, fans won’t know more about the situation until the coaching staff can get a full picture of the situation during training camp.
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