Georgia product Travon Walker is equipped with incredible max potential that can be reached while playing within this New York Jets scheme.
The Georgia Bulldogs are well represented in the 2022 NFL draft. After all, in order to knock off mighty Alabama for the college football crown, a college football team better be loaded.
And that especially refers to Georgia’s defense—something that should be of great interest to the New York Jets.
Blewett’s Blitz already broke down linebacker Nakobe Dean, and now we turn our attention to the defensive line: edge defender Travon Walker.
The full Travon Walker film breakdown can be seen at the bottom of this article.
Walker has previously been thought of as a “late first-round” or even second-round guy, while not possessing the goods to truly compete with others such as George Karlaftis and Jermaine Johnson.
Lately, however, things have changed a bit, as Walker has shot up boards, going as high as No. 2 to the Detroit Lions.
Why exactly was he previously thought of as a possible second-rounder? Because let me tell you, he squarely belongs in the upper-tier conversation—not only as a first-round pick but to potentially be the first edge rusher off of the board.
- Why does Travon Walker deserve this hype?
- Would the Jets actually consider him with their No. 4 or No. 10 overall pick?
- Could he actually be the first edge off of the board or the second, behind Aidan Hitchinson?
All of these questions and more are answered in the latest edition of Blewett’s Blitz. The full Travon Walker film breakdown can be seen at the bottom of this article (nearly an hour and twenty minutes in length).
YouTube clip and podcast episode
Strengths and weaknesses
Strengths
- Speed for size
- Versatile as he lined all over Georgia’s defensive front
- Explosive
- Length
- Natural power
- Seen him drop into coverage and not look totally out of place
- Fluidity for size
- Smooth
- Very strong hands
- Strength in base
- Sets a strong edge
- Lateral movement
- Rush moves include long arm, club-rip, bull-jerk, bull, spin, double swipe
- Great in run game
- Effort
- Core strength
- Anchor
- Stacks blockers with ease
- Speed to power
- First step quickness
- Flexible for size
- Controls point of attack
- Change of direction
- Resets hands while stacking blocker
- Hand placement in run game
- Works off inn steps in run game
- Inside/outside pillars in run game to keep half clean to RB
- Will shorten stride to read IOL sets when rushing inside
- Timing of feet/hands mostly good
- Plays with good extension
- Can handle double teams
- Ankle flexion
- Bend for size
- Hard to get him off track
- Good on stunts, engages as looper to distract and keep himself clean
- Timing of long arm
- Flashes of + pass rushing
- Awareness
- 35-inch arms
- 4.51-second 40-time
Weaknesses
- Can get stalled in rushes
- Relies on power too often
- Counter rush moves
- Hand usage as rusher
- Want to see him shed earlier in run game
- Too many sacks/tackle attempts are broken
- Needs to stack moves more consistently
- How is he in a consistent full-time role (multiples games with fewer than 20 snaps, some games with 70+ snaps)?
- Needs to tighten up rip-move
- Too often relies on long-arm
- Could stand to take more direct angles and uses bull rush move effectively
- Could use space better, condense angles
- Want to see him try to win inside more
- Feet can slow as he is about to use hands as rusher
- Inconsistent leverage (in rush, not often)
- Can disguise rush angles better (hips give away his plan early)
- Want to see him rush from wide
Full Travon Walker film breakdown
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Great Review, People just get caught in stats and you can clearly see with a full year pass rushing just firing off the line he could be deadly. Will be interesting to see where he goes. Appears to be the odds on favorite to go #1 now.
So after doing all your studies, where are you ranking these rushers?
On his stream last week he said 1) Hutch 2) Thibs 3A) Karlaftis 3B) Walker and 5) JJ.