Georgia Bulldogs linebacker Quay Walker (7) brings down Alabama Crimson Tide linebacker Kendrick Blackshire (40) on Monday, Jan. 10, 2022, during the College Football Playoff National Championship at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis.
The Georgia Bulldogs will have multiple defensive players taken in the first round of the draft, and the Detroit Lions continue their due diligence with linebacker Quay Walker on Tuesday.
Any team with significant defensive needs in the draft would do well to look at last year’s Georgia Bulldogs defense, and the Detroit Lions have done so with multiple top-30 visits. On Tuesday, according to Ian Rapoport of NFL Network, linebacker Quay Walker will be the latest former Bulldog to pay a visit the Lions.
Walker started all 15 games for the national title-winning Bulldogs last year, with 67 total tackles, 5.5 tackles for loss, 25 quarterback pressures,1.5 sacks and three pass breakups. At 6-foot-4 and 241 pounds, he ran a 4.52 40 at the combine, along with a 32-inch vertical and a 122-inch broad (10’2″).
Walker started his last two years for Kirby Smart at Georgia, and Pro Football Focus thought highly of his work. His ability in coverage looks to be subjective to how deep you’d like to dive into it, but he’s not a huge detriment in that area.
Will the Lions be able to draft Quay Walker?
Walker could be an option for the Lions at No. 32 (or No. 34, early in the second round). That said, in his report of the visit Rapoport posed the question–but will he (Walker) be there at 32?
Via NFL Mock Draft Database, two fairly recent mock drafts (Ryan Dodson of The Huddle and Jon Ledyard of Pewter Report) have the Lions landing Walker at No. 32. But there are several others that have him going somewhere between No. 20 and No. 30.
In particular with Travon Walker a legit candidate to go No. 1 overall to the Jaguars, Quay Walker isn’t getting quite as much attention as some of his former teammates. But he is looking like a first-round pick, as we perhaps eventually lose count of how many 2021 Bulldogs’ defensive players go off the board in Round 1.