On the radio with ESPN Milwaukee, ESPN’s Adam Schefter gave us all an replace on Green Bay Packers left sort out Rasheed Walker and his standing in free company. Right now, Walker is by far the very best participant left in free company, according to consensus rankings, who has but to signal with a crew by the second day of the brand new league yr.
Here’s what Shefter needed to say concerning the Walker scenario:
There weren’t a lot of groups within the left market to start with. There had been solely a few like Cleveland, Detroit, a few others. What occurred is there weren’t a lot of groups, and I believe he’s now gonna look to a one-year deal. A one-year deal to place himself in a good scenario and return into the market subsequent yr.
The excellent news for Packers followers right here, who’re hoping to money in on a excessive draft choose, is that the one quantity in a participant’s contract that issues within the compensatory draft pick formula is a participant’s common per yr (APY). As lengthy as Walker can get market-value money circulate in that one-year deal, there’s nothing to fret about.
What I’ll say, although, is that there have been actually three markets that blew up final yr: offensive sort out (Dan Moore Jr. making a $20.5 million APY after main the NFL in sacks allowed), off-ball linebacker (non-Pro Bowlers had been capable of hit $15 million APY) and cornerback (common cornerbacks made $18 million APY, together with Paulson Adebo coming off a damaged leg). As we wrote about after the primary day of the authorized tampering interval, the market has pushed back on pricing at both off-ball linebacker and cornerback this free agency cycle.
Walker was regarded as the one offensive sort out of his caliber available on the market this yr, so I actually wouldn’t make an excessive amount of about what different tackles made in free company. He’s the one sort out in his tier (younger and a true starter), so these different knowledge factors received’t assist inform us of Walker’s market.
I’ll say, although, that since he’s nonetheless on the market, I could see a world the place the league pushes again on sort out pricing, which could get Walker underneath the $20.5 million APY Moore obtained. If that’s the case, Green Bay’s projected third-round choose, which we assumed the crew can be getting for Walker primarily based on contract projections coming into free company, could be pushed to a fourth-round choose. We’ll all discover out collectively each time Walker indicators.
Post pandemic, groups have been spending 10 % extra in money on participant funds than their general cap quantity in a single yr, although cap house has been going up about $25 million per yr. At least as of now, it appears to be like like this development of borrowing is reversing a bit after six seasons. Because of that, a few of these “bad deals” that had been signed in 2025 are not getting used because the baseline for 2026 contracts, which was the fact earlier than the league’s financials turned extra conservative. A nasty deal used to set a participant’s ground for the following season. This yr, groups are saying, “Yeah, well, we wouldn’t have done that deal; This is our price.”
What Walker might be going through proper now could be groups saying, “Hey, every starting tackle coming off a rookie deal can’t get the Dan Moore Jr. contract.”
