24 For 2024 - #19 Jalon Walker

"Who would you rank as the coaches most important to UGA's success?"

A DawgsCentral user posting under the name PiousMonken posed that question to me in the spring of 2023, and I quickly realized that a good answer would require quite a bit of consideration. 

When thinking about the question, I kept coming back to an old football cliche, "It's not the X's and the O's, but the Jimmys and the Joes that make the difference." I found myself considering the players who suit up on Saturdays. Good gameplans and great play calls are key to the success of any college football program, but they are usually only as good as the personnel executing them. With that in mind, I decided to broaden the scope of the rankings beyond members of the coaching staff. 

It sparked a series of longform articles called 23 For 2023. The premise was simple- Profile the 23 people who were most important to Georgia’s success on the gridiron in 2023. To create such a list, one must make value judgments on what on and off-field assets are most important to a modern college football program. 

It focused on players and coaches within the UGA program. Collectively, the series served as a giant preview for the season ahead. It became a favorite of subscribers, and it forced me to ask questions that I hadn’t before. 

This year, I am bringing the list back once again. Naturally, it will be called 24 for 2024. 

With his former mentor now manning a microphone on ESPN, Kirby Smart is college football’s most accomplished coach. In 2024, Smart will have to navigate significant staff turnover and seismic changes within the sport itself. Georgia came up short of a third straight national championship in 2023, but winning it all this season would give the Bulldogs three titles in four years. That achievement would cement the program as a modern dynasty. 

Whether or not Georgia can reach that lofty pedestal, and how they go about trying to do it, will be largely influenced by the roles these 24 individuals play. 

Today we continue the rankings with #19. The first few entries in this series will not be paywalled, but as we get further down the list it will become a subscriber’s only feature. Let’s get after it…

Previous Entries

#24 - David Hill

#23 - Will a True Nose Tackle emerge for the Dawgs?

#22 - Benjamin Yurosek

#21 - Will Muschamp

#20 - Dominic Lovett

#19 - Jalon Walker

When Jalon Walker arrived in Athens, he did so to considerable hype. He was yet another name in a long string of five-star inside linebackers who had come to play for LB coach Glenn Schumann. Like many others with his blue-chip pedigree, he came with hopes of picking up the mantle that names like Roquan Smith, Nakobe Dean and Quay Walker had carried while ushering in a new era of Bulldog glory. The play of those individuals had been good enough to turn them into first-round draft picks, and turn UGA into college football's modern version of "LBU."

As a high-school senior, Walker already had the physical build of an 8-year NFL starter. The obvious college readiness of his frame and the departure of Dean and Walker only created more talk of Walker playing early at Georgia. Smael Mondon and Jamon Dumas-Johnson, two other names in that string of heralded linebackers, would ascend to the starting roles instead. In his first 5 games at Georgia, Walker played just 22 total snaps. All of those came in garbage time with victory well secured. 

I was sitting in the press box of a fairly sleepy Sanford Stadium when Walker came into the game against an overmatched Vanderbilt team in the fall of 2022. These weren't high stakes reps in a heated battle, but it was still the first-half and the first-team defense was still in the game. Interested to see Walker in action, I scanned the ILB positions to find him before the snap. That's when I realized he wasn't lined up there.

Walker was in the wrong spot... I mean, he wasn't lined up in the wrong spot per say, but he also was not lined up at linebacker. Freshman linebacker Jalon Walker was in the game, but he wasn't playing linebacker. Walker was lined up on the edge of Georgia's defensive line at the Bulldogs' "JACK" position. The snap came, and Walker came outside the tackle's shoulder to set the edge. More snaps came, and Walker started making tackles. Then more snaps came after that, but this time Walker was lined up at his traditional LB position. Once again, he made a tackle. 

When that day was done, Walker had played 19 snaps. He took 10 of those as an edge defender and 8 of them as a LB. He played in coverage and he rushed the quarterback, he dropped back into coverage a few times too. He made 4 tackles for the Bulldogs in that game, and all of them resulted in unsuccessful plays for the opposing offense. I have never seen Jalon Walker on a football field and thought he was in the wrong position again. 

Walker didn't have a single QB pressure that day against Vanderbilt, which is a bit ironic when you consider the player he has become since then. Those 19 snaps were the most he played in a single game in 2022, but that season might not have ended with a 15-0 Georgia team hoisting a trophy in Los Angeles if he hadn't been a Bulldog. 

A week earlier, Georgia's defense was being torn to pieces by CJ Stroud and an array of future NFL receivers in the CFP Semifinal against Ohio State. The desperate Dawgs finally realized that Stroud would pick them apart all night if they let him sit back and scan the field. Georgia started throwing the kitchen sink at Stroud, sending rushers from all levels of the defense in the hopes of confusing him. With injuries across the front seven, Walker pitched in 3 pressures that night. One of them forced a throwaway by Stroud on 3rd down with under 5 minutes to play. It forced OSU into a FG that made the score 41-35, and it got Stetson Bennett the ball back for the game winning drive. 

Another one of Walker's pressures came after the TD that put Georgia ahead. Walker came screaming off the left side of the defensive line and flew past a TE. He was in Stroud’s face before he could finish his drop or set his feet to throw. Stroud spun away, but he was forced to run backwards in order to throw the ball out of bounds. 

That final third-down pressure by Walker kept Ohio State from getting the yards it desperately needed. Buckeyes kicker Noah Ruggles had never made a 50-yard FG before that night, and he still hasn't to this day. 

How do you use a guy who can do everything? 

Walker's turn at EDGE certainly didn't happen by mistake, but he was cross-trained there at least in part due to UGA's exceptional LB depth his freshman year. Those Dawgs had veterans Rian Davis and Trezmen Marshall to rotate in and spell Mondon and Dumas-Johnson. Today's college football landscape is filled with turnstiles- A heralded recruit whose not starting is likely departing.

Walker wasn't just physically talented when he got to Athens his freshman year. He also came in and picked up UGA's defense right away. His demeanor and work ethic was more akin to an upperclassman than a lost freshman. In short, Walker was a guy who deserved some playing time, but he was in a position where there was none to be had. 

Everyone thought his longterm future was at LB, and many still do, but the experiment at edge was too successful to abandon. He finished 2022 with 13 pressures on just 64 pass rush snaps. The sample size was small and the competition varied, but Walker's pass-rush productivity rate was a smidge higher than Nolan Smith's (102 pass rush snaps/19 pressures) in 2022.

Walker's workload increased last season despite missing spring practice due to offseason labrum surgery. He saw most of his snaps with Georgia's first-team, and he played in all 14 contests, but he didn't become an every down player for the Bulldogs. It's hard to interpret exactly why because last season made it even harder to define what position Walker plays. 

When looking at Walker's 2023 snap counts, the Missouri game immediately pops out. The 32 snaps that Walker played in Georgia's hard fought win over the Tigers were the most that he has had in any game as a Bulldog. The immediate reaction to seeing that was to remember that Jamon Dumas-Johnson suffered a broken arm against the Tigers, and assume that Walker played increased snaps after Dumas-Johnson left the game. That assumption is wrong. 

If you go back and watch the Missouri tape you'll see Walker on the field for Mizzou's very first drive of the game, but he's lined up on the defensive line instead of as an inside linebacker. In reality, Walker played over two-thirds of his snaps at defensive line that day. Even after the injury to Dumas-Johnson, he was playing as an edge defender much more than a LB.

Walker is still treated as a linebacker, and he often trains with Georgia's linebackers. There is a belief by some that his NFL future is brightest at there, and it is possible that Georgia feels keeping him in the mix at LB is the best thing for him. I would argue that the opposite may be true

Embracing The Pass Rush

When you think of a prototypical pass rusher, you usually think of guys with length. they are 6'4 or 6'5" and they have long arms and athletic frames. Walker arrived at UGA at 6'2" and roughly 225 pounds. The normal person's wingspan is equal to their height. Walker's 76-inch wingspan is plus-sized for his 74-inch frame, but guys like JJ Watt and Myles Garrett have wingspans that are approaching 7-feet. Walker's is nowhere near there.

I'm telling you all of that to tell you why the argument exists for Walker's home to be at linebacker. Now I'm going to tell you why none of that should matter, at least not right now.

Trivia question for you... Who led 2023 UGA in QB pressures? 

It's a bit of a trick question because there are two answers. Both Jalon Walker and Mykel Williams had 26 pressures for the Bulldogs last year. It's impressive that Walker tied a surefire future first-round draft pick like Williams for team lead, but it's really impressive when you realize that Williams did that despite having just 124 pass rush snaps to Mykel's 236. 

It'd be unfair to not point out that Williams was shaded further inside and had interior gap responsibilities in the run game that slowed his get off at times. It should also be mentioned that Walker rushed from the LB position at certain junctures as well. Still, even after accounting for all of that, Georgia has a pressure machine in Walker. When you look at his production in 2023, it could be argued that he was underutilized last season. Here are a few numbers that pop out...

• Walker's PFF Pass Rush Grade of 85.4 led all players on the 2023 Georgia roster.
• Walker's win percentage on pass rush snaps was 21.5%. The next highest win percentage among Bulldogs with 100+ pass rush opportunities last year was Warren Brinson's 12.8.
• That win percentage jumped to a whopping 24.5% when Walker faced true pass sets*

*True pass sets are plays where a QB drops back into the pocket without play-action, rollouts or screens. It is a way of measuring a rushers true value as a rusher. 

The statistical arguments for Walker not being a linebacker anymore are strong. His body has also changed significantly since he enrolled in Athens. He is now a stout 245 pounds, which is around the size where UGA edge defenders like Nolan Smith, Azeez Ojulari and Robert Beal Jr. played. The tape might speak most loudly of all though. 

When you watch Walker play off the edge you don't see a LB taking a vacation from his normal duties. His burst at the snap is fantastic, and he bends extremely well when coming around the outside of an opposing offensive tackle as a speed rusher.

Walker has also shown he can get home against some of the best offensive lines in the SEC. He had 4 pressures on 17 pass rush snaps against Missouri's Javon Foster, who was taken 114th overall in this year's NFL Draft. Walker isn't padding stats against FCS schools and the bottom feeders of the SEC. He had a career high 5 pressures and 2 sacks against Alabama in the SEC Championship. Ironically, that game does present an argument for using Walker in some creative ways that don't involve him putting his hand in the dirt at the end of the line of scrimmage. 

One of his sacks came early in the game on a simulated pressure on a third-down. Georgia ran a three-down linemen look where Walker stood over the A-Gap* before the snap and threatened to blitz. When the play began he stayed disengaged from the offensive line but walked upfield as a spy on Bama QB Jalen Milroe. When Milroe tried to step up and to the left and escape the pocket, Walker mirrored his movements and came upfield and wrapped him up for a sack without ever letting an offensive linemen touch him. Later in the same quarter, Bama faced a 3rd & 9 from the UGA 25 yard-line. Walker lined up on the edge and speed rushed his way past LT Kadyn Proctor, flushing Milroe out of the pocket at the top of his drop. 

*The "A-Gaps" are between the Center and the Guards. The B-Gaps are between the Guards and Tackles.

If Georgia wants to use Walker to contain an athletic quarterback that makes sense, but the Bulldogs should rarely need him to play a traditional LB role or drop into pass coverage. They have recruited loads of linebacking talent, but the current UGA roster is not deep on proven pass rushers.

Walker played just 12 snaps against the Crimson Tide. Only 7 of those were in pass rush. He had 5 pressures and 2 sacks in those 7 pass rush snaps. Considering Georgia's struggles getting to Jalen Milroe in that game, it is fair to wonder why that number wasn't higher. There were times in that Alabama game where Walker was asked to play LB and drop into coverage in third-and-long. His athleticism made him effective in that role, but you can also keep an explosive pass play from happening by forcing the QB to get the ball out before deep routes can develop. 

In truth, it's fair to wonder why Walker's usage rate wasn't higher throughout the 2023 season. 

Last year's UGA team took a big step back in pass rush production. Their 222 total pressures were 61 fewer than they amassed in 2022, and 70 less than they created in 2021. The Dawgs do like to use their ILB's in pass rush packages where they crash upfield into the A-Gaps at the snap, but Walker has shown he can beat people off the edge.

When it was all said and done, Georgia's 2023 leader in pressures had just the 7th most pass rush opportunities on the team. 58 of his 224 total snaps were spent in pass coverage, far away from the QB. His rush percentage on passing downs was only 68.4%, which seems low for a guy with the ability to get to the passer. 

The ability of an edge defender to set the edge on first and second down is obviously crucial to a defense's success. Walker has shown flashes of both good and bad as a run defender at the EDGE/OLB position, and that is probably the biggest area of growth for him if he wants to be more of an every down player next season. Still though, Walker's value is immense. If it's second-and-long or third-and-long, then he should probably be chasing the QB. Georgia's usage of him last season was creative, but it might have been a little too creative at times. 

As for Walker's NFL future, it's worth noting that there is precedent for a player of his size to be drafted highly.

Haason Reddick came out of Temple at 6'1" and 230 pounds with a 4.52 forty-yard dash time (Walker has run in the 4.50 range in the past). He had racked up sacks at Temple under Matt Rhule, but at the Senior Bowl he was encouraged to switch to LB because he was seen as too small to be an NFL edge defender. His instincts were solid, and he shot up draft boards with good measurements.

He was picked 13th overall by the Arizona Cardinals, but Reddick struggled early in his career because they weren't exactly sure how to use him. He started just 20 of his first 48 career games. In 2018, he played 79.8% of his snaps as a linebacker and produced 4 sacks and 18 pressures. The next season, he was at linebacker for 68.4% of his snaps and he had just 1 sack and 23 pressures. Reddick's career was on the rocks.

In Week 6 of that season, Reddick came into the game at EDGE after starter Chandler Jones was injured. He had 2 sacks in that game against the Cowboys, and then finished the season on a tear. By the end of the year, he was 4th in the league in sacks. He signed with the Panthers that offseason and reunited with Rhule, putting up 11 sacks and 62 total tackles.

The next year, Reddick went to Philadelphia and became the lynchpin of a defense that made a run to the Super Bowl. In the fourth quarter of the NFC Championship, Reddick sacked 49ers QB Brock Purdy twice, forcing a fumble on one of those plays. It helped seal a Super Bowl trip for Philadelphia, and was the cherry on top of a 16 sack season. His LB skills allowed him to be crucial to Philly's run, following RB's out of the backfield and being physical against the run. Reddick was a good LB who also happened to be a great pass rusher, and he became a weapon that the Eagles could move to create pass rush mismatches or have an extra man in coverage.

Reddick's LB skills have value, but they don't have as much value as getting to the quarterback. All 10 of the NFL's highest paid defensive players in 2024 are linemen. Two of them are DT's Chris Jones and Christen Wilkins. The other eight are edge rushers. There is nothing more valuable to a defense than sacks, and that might be informative when it comes to Jalon Walker. 

The 2024 Bulldogs have a DE/EDGE player in Mykel Williams who could be one of the top players taken in the next NFL Draft. They also have a trio of heralded young edge defenders who are coming into their second year- Gabe Harris, Samuel M'Pemba and Damon Wilson. They also have a veteran OLB in Chaz Chambliss.

Yes, the Bulldogs are long on promise and also have some strong experience in the OLB room. No, you can never have too many guys effecting the quarterback. Walker can have value to Georgia playing in pass coverage or crashing into a RB as a linebacker, but it won't be as great as the value he can have if set loose to attack the QB. If it's a passing down and Jalon Walker is on the field, he should probably be chasing the quarterback down. 

Georgia's march for a three-peat was derailed in Atlanta last December for many reasons. There were injuries that piled up and controversial calls. There were mental miscues on offense. The interior of UGA's defensive line struggled to plug its run lanes at times. All those things hurt. So did the inability to get to Jalon Milroe with four pass rushers. Georgia was forced to either put numbers in coverage or numbers in pass rush, but it didn't have the ability to be balanced. In the end, it cost them a chance at history. 

The 2024 Dawgs have their own chance to do something historic by winning the program's third title in four years. To do it, they'll have to find more ways to bother the quarterback than they did last season. In Walker, they have a player who symbolizes the riches of talent that Kirby Smart has acquired for his program. Yes, he could be an NFL linebacker. He could also be a 10+ sack pass rusher in the SEC. Choosing which of those he should be, and when, could have an outsized effect on the Georgia defense's ability to create havoc.