The Pittsburgh Steelers suffered far too many injuries at inside linebacker to survive the entire season without Cole Holcomb and Kwon Alexander, who both suffered season-ending injuries. So, in came Mykal Walker, who the Steelers brought in to try and deal with the injuries.
After the rash of injuries, Walker ended up playing in eight games and starting in five games for the Steelers. He, along with Elandon Roberts, Mark Robinson, and Myles Jack, cobbled together a group of players that were playing only because of the injuries.
During his exit interview, Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin was brutally honest with Walker. Even though they would like to do with business with Walker, he would have to play much better if he returned.
"“After every year, you do exit meetings,” Walker said on the Bring The Juice Podcast. “So I go in there with Mike [Tomlin], and he’s like, ‘We really appreciate you, you came in here on a short leash. Obviously, if you come back, I would love to do business with you. If you do come back, we expect you to play better, but we’d love to do business with you in the future.’ I was like ok, cool, that’s fair. You know, obviously, I didn’t have the best season I had. It was cool that he acknowledged it and said he appreciated the work I put in.”
Walker ended up signing with the Washington Commanders. The Commanders have played Walker as a special teamer, and he has yet to start a game this year. He has played in 13 games, however, and carved out a gameday role for himself.
A year ago, he was sitting on a couch during the season before the Steelers came calling, so Walker revived his career from his stint in Pittsburgh.
