Jacksonville Jaguars select Georgia EDGE Travon Walker with the 1st pick. Grade: A-

With the first pick in the 2022 NFL draft, the JacksonvilleJaguars select Georgia EDGE Travon Walker.

GRADE: A-.

There are pass-rushers with more finished traits in this class, but perhaps nobody with more potential, both inside and outside, than Walker. Not only can he blow things up from every gap, but he’ll be asked to be more aggressive in Jacksonville’s defense than he did in Georgia’s containment fronts. I think that Florida State’s Jermaine Johnson II is the better edge defender, but it’s hard to argue against Walker’s potential.

Height: 6’5″ (78th) Weight: 272 (66th)
40-Yard Dash: 4.51 seconds (98th)
10-Yard Split: 1.62 seconds (70th)
Bench Press: N/A
Vertical Jump: 36 inches (80th)
Broad Jump: 123 inches (87th)
3-Cone Drill: 6.89 seconds (93rd)
20-Yard Shuttle: 4.32 seconds (76th)

Wingspan: 84 1/4 inches (95th)
Arm Length: 35 1/2 inches (95th)
Hand Size: 10 3/4 inches (95th)

Bio: Yury “Travon” Walker was a five-star recruit out of Upson-Lee High School in Thomaston, Georgia as a multi-position defender, running back, and tight end. He passed on Alabama, Clemson, and South Carolina to go with his home state school of Georgia, and he made Freshman All-SEC in 2019. But he didn’t start a single game in the Bulldogs’ loaded defenses until 2021, when he started all 15 games in the NCAA’s most loaded defense. Then, he amassed 7.5 sacks, nine quarterback hits, and 20 quarterback hurries on 381 pass-rushing snaps. As much potential as he’s shown to date, Walker may be the biggest upside prospect in this entire draft class.

Stat to Know: Walker amassed 11 total pressures in his three final games with the Bulldogs — against Alabama in the SEC Championship game, against Michigan in the Orange Bowl, and against Alabama again in the College Football Championship.

Strengths: It’s very easy to see why NFL teams will fall in love with Walker’s preposterous traits. This sack against Michigan has three Wolverine hats on Walker at one point, and he somehow wriggled out of it to take the quarterback down when the quarterback was running away from him. Yikes. Walker taking Mr. Quarterback down with one big paw at the end was the denouement.

Missouri’s right guard is in a very, very, very bad place here, and he probably knows it pre-snap. He’s singled up on Walker on the inside, and you can guess how that turned out — with a decisive bull-rush, and the guard on his butt.

Weaknesses: There’s an entirely legitimate argument to be made that Walker benefited to an insane degree by the fact that he was surrounded with generational first-round defensive talent all around him. How do you sort that out? Look at the plays where Walker was double-teamed, and see how he reacted. Against Alabama, he did not display the techniques required to knife through the double. It’s an area of concern in his short-term value if he’s drafted by a team requiring him to be the alpha dog from Day 1.

Another example — this time against Texas, where Walker doesn’t really have an answer to getting doubled on an inside stunt.

As athletically impressive as Walker is, there are times when this actually gets in his way — he’s still learning to combine his ferocious burst and next-level speed with timing and spatial awareness, which leads to “cat on a kitchen floor” moments like this rep in which he tries in vain to catch up with Alabama quarterback Bryce Young. You’ll also see this too often when he’s defending in space.

Conclusion: Every draft class had its “traits vs. production” players, and there are few more obvious examples in recent years than Walker. There are times when he looks like the EDGE1 in this class, and it’s not even close. Other times, his lack of advanced tools will show up, and you realize that he’s a work in progress — like every other draft prospect in football history. But those traits will have him drafted highly, justifiably so, and I can’t wait to see what he looks like after some time with NFL-level coaching.

NFL Comparison: Jason Pierre-Paul. When Pierre-Paul came out of South Florida in the 2010 draft, he was seen by most as an athletic freak with raw technique that would take time to develop. The Giants selected him with the 15th overall pick, betting on the upside, and that went pretty well for them when Pierre-Paul was at his best. Teams are going to be falling all over themselves for Walker based on his raw traits, but there’s a bit of caveat emptor here — Walker may be one of those pass-rushers who needs a year in the NFL to sort things out. If he does, he could easily be the most disruptive edge defender — perhaps the most disruptive defender — in this class.