Sure it does, but it tempers it by how poorly he played at times earlier in the season. As you state, it is not yet known if he has established a new floor from which he will continue to ascend, if he has peaked and will now plateau, or if he simply had a good streak which he will be unable to achieve consistently.Originally Posted by smuggler
All things being equal, I'd much rather have a young player ascending throughout the year as he gains experience. We gave Jordan Love credit for that, and I think we need to give it to Walker too.
PFF graded Walker at 66.4, ever so slightly higher than Elgton Jenkins last year. PFF had Meyers lower and Ryhan significantly lower. I don't take their grades as gospel, but they're worth something.
I think the Packers going deep on OL in this draft has a lot to do with the quality of OL available in this draft, and the overall poor play of OL in the NFL. If they keep 10 or 11 OL, that position room represents about 20% of their roster. Given how important it is to keep your QB upright, I think more teams should be taking 3 OL per year. I'm not reading too much into this draft as a reflection upon Walker. At this point he was a 7th rounder who has nicely outperformed his 7th round draft slot.
My concern on the OL is really Elgton Jenkins. We are not paying him $14M (cap hit this year) at a non premium position to grade out at 65. You should be grading in the 80s to justify that kind of dough. His dead money cap hit is cut in half next year, and I think he's the guy on the hot seat. And it's not because he's a bad player - it's because he's a good player getting paid like an elite player.
Rasheed Walker's cap hit is $1M this year, and $1.1M next year - at a premium position. Gotta love the rookie wage scale.
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