27 Days Until Training Camp: Biggest Question at Inside Linebacker
GREEN BAY, Wis. – In a big midseason showdown at Buffalo, Green Bay Packers linebacker Quay Walker tumbled to the turf along the Bills’ sideline. A member of the Bills’ practice squad, who wasn’t in uniform, braced himself for contact and put two hands on Walker.
Walker shoved him and was ejected.
“It’s something I can’t do, and that’s something I already know,” Walker said that night. “I hate that I did it because people that don’t really know me are going to really assume that I’m this bad guy just because of that one play.”
Walker’s teary-eyed comments, ultimately, meant nothing. In the biggest game of the season, the do-or-die Week 18 game against the Lions, a Detroit trainer lightly pushed Walker aside while approaching an injured player. Walker, shoved him, too, and was ejected. The Lions turned that into the decisive touchdown.
According to ESPN.com research, Walker became the first player since at least 2000 to be ejected twice in a season. He accounted for two of the NFL’s 16 ejections last season and was the first Packers player ejected since Jermaine Whitehead in 2018.
Walker was right about one thing following the Buffalo game: People are going to “assume” things about him that may or may not be true. The second ejection, to state the obvious, won him no favors in that regard. A rookie losing his cool in a big primetime game? Inexcusable but perhaps worthy of a free pass following a heartfelt apology. Do it again with the season on the line? The words and tears mean nothing.
Quay Walker and Matt LaFleur following Walker's Week 18 ejection. (Photo by Dan Powers/USA Today Sports Images)
“I don’t think he has a problem,” general manager Brian Gutekunst said at the end of the season. “Certainly, he can’t do that. That’s unacceptable and he knows that. We love Quay. We love everything he’s bringing to our squad right now. For a rookie to come in and do what he did, not only on the field but I think he’s done some good things leadership-wise. He has a really bright future ahead of him. I’m excited for him. …
“Again, that can’t happen, but I was proud of the way he responded to it.”
What’s unfortunate is the ejections overshadowed his All-Rookie season. The 22nd pick of the draft, Walker led the Packers and finished second among all NFL rookies with 119 tackles. Notably, in three seasons at Georgia, Walker broke up three passes and forced zero fumbles. With the Packers, he broke up seven passes and forced three fumbles.
He was excellent – and got better every week, it seemed – but can Walker take that cliched second-year jump on the field but an even bigger jump emotionally? Can he be a standout in big games rather than thrown out? Can he dominate with discipline?
It’s that series of questions that will define whether future stories and conversations about Walker will be about football rather than temper.
“He and I have spent a lot of time on that subject,” position coach Kirk Olivadotti said at the start of OTAs. “He gets asked about it, I get asked about it – we all do. The biggest thing is that I know and I trust Quay that he and I’ve talked through that and had our conversations and have a plan in place for a lot of different things.
“At the end of the day, it comes down to me trusting him, him trusting me and then us moving forward from what happened. Those conversations are ongoing and he’s more than willing to learn from all his mistakes, especially those. Obviously, you can’t have that, and he understands that.”
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