Amid the excitement that has come along with the Packers‘ steady youth movement stands the reality that the team does have a a pretty big miss–or, at least, a potential miss, on its recent draft record.
And while it might not be immediate, the team is not supposed to sit on its hands and hope the player in question gets better. That player is linebacker Quay Walker, whose promising start to his career after he was a first-round pick in 2022 has faded as it has become clear he is not a fit with the current iteration of the Packers’ defense.
Walker is in Year 3 with the Packers, and while he is still a starter and still playing the bulk of the team’s snaps, he has not become the physical, do-everything presence in the middle that Green Bay had hoped he would be. At Pro Football Focus, Walker has a grade of 58.1, which ranks 60th among the league’s 83 linebackers.
According to team insider Pete Dougherty of PackersNews.com, don’t expect to see Walker around for too much longer in Green Bay.
Packers Could Trade Quay Walker This Offseason
That’s because the Packers will have to decide in May whether to exercise their fifth-year option on Walker for the 2026 season. That, Dougherty says, is a non-starter–and could open the way for a trade.
“It’s a given they’ll decline. OverTheCap estimates his option will be about $16 million. No way (GM Brian) Gutekunst will commit to that. To be clear about how this works, Walker is under contract for ’25, so the option is for ’26. But the Packers have to decide on the option a year ahead of time,” he wrote.
“Actually, there’s no ruling out a possible trade of Walker in the offseason, depending on what the Packers have seen from third-round pick Ty’Ron Hopper on the practice field. Hopper has played only seven snaps on defense this season and missed most of training camp because of an ankle injury, but in two preseason games he brought a physical element the Packers haven’t seen in the middle of their defense for a long time.”
So, while it is a given that the Packers will not give Walker a big 2026 payday–linebackers have had trouble getting big contracts these days–it is not a given that he will be on the roster at this time next season.
But while Walker might go down as a draft error, if the Packers keep liking what they see from Hopper and Edgerrin Cooper, surely they’ll accept that.
