Schefter: Packers’ Rasheed Walker could take a 1-year deal
On the radio with ESPN Milwaukee, ESPN’s Adam Schefter gave us all an replace on Green Bay Packers left deal with 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 rankingswho has but to signal with a group for the second day of the brand new league 12 months.
Here’s what Shefter needed to say concerning the Walker state of affairs:
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 feel he is now going to have a look at a one-year deal. A one-year deal to place himself in a good state of affairs and return into the market subsequent 12 months.
The excellent news for Packers followers right here, who’re hoping to money in on a excessive draft decide, is that the one quantity in a participant’s contract that issues within the compensatory draft pick formula is a participant’s common per 12 months (APY). As lengthy as Walker can get market-value money stream 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 12 months: offensive deal with (Dan Moore Jr. making a $20.5 million APY after main the NFL in sacks allowed), off-ball linebacker (non-Pro Bowlers had been in a position to 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 considered the one offensive deal with of his caliber available on the market this 12 months, so I truthfully would not make an excessive amount of about what different tackles made in free company. He’s the one deal with in his tier (younger and a true starter), so these different knowledge factors will not assist inform us of Walker’s market.
I’ll say, although, that since he is nonetheless on the market, I could see a world the place the league pushes again on deal with pricing, which could get Walker below the $20.5 million APY Moore acquired. If that is the case, Green Bay’s projected third-round decide, which we assumed the group can be getting for Walker based mostly on contract projections coming into free company, could be pushed to a fourth-round decide. We’ll all discover out collectively each time Walker indicators.
Post pandemic, groups have been spending 10 p.c extra in money on participant funds than their total cap quantity in a single 12 months, regardless that cap house has been going up about $25 million per 12 months. At least as of now, it appears to be like like this pattern 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 foul deal used to set a participant’s flooring for the following season. This 12 months, groups are saying, “Yeah, well, we wouldn’t have done that deal; This is our price.”
What Walker might be going through proper now’s groups saying, “Hey, every starting tackle coming off a rookie deal can’t get the Dan Moore Jr. contract.”
