Name: Wesley Walker
Height: 6'1"
Weight: 200 lbs.
High school: Lewisburg (TN) Ensworth
Position: Safety
Class: Sixth year senior
Jersey number: #13
Last year: Walker played at Tennessee. He started ten games and made 53 tackles, 3.5 tackles for loss, 1 sack, 1 forced fumble, and 2 pass breakups.
TTB Rating: N/A
Walker was a fifth year senior for the Tennessee Volunteers last year and had a decent season with 53 tackles and 3.5 tackles for loss. He graded out fairly well overall on Pro Football Focus, but those scores declined during the second half of the year. His grades were all 60.4 or higher for the first half of the season, and then he didn't have a grade higher than 55.3 after week seven, including a season-low 47.5 against Alabama. It's a little concerning that he didn't hold up well against the better competition, but that could also be opposing teams figuring out how to expose Tennessee's defense.
Michigan brought in Walker to help at safety after they lost Quinten Johnson (declared for the NFL draft), Keon Sabb (transfer to Alabama), and Rod Moore (ACL tear). Johnson, of course, was able to return to the program, and then Michigan also landed Michigan State's Jaden Mangham in the transfer portal. So the safety spot went from a huge question mark back to a solid spot, partly because of Walker. Word at the beginning of camp seemed to suggest that Walker would probably end up starting alongside Makari Paige, but now it seems like Johnson is the front-runner and Mangham is pushing for playing time. With Paige locking down one spot, it's a three-man race for the other one. That kind of diminishes the importance of any one guy, so I have Mangham and Walker hanging out pretty close together in the countdown. The safety rotation could be one of the most volatile positions battles throughout the season as a bunch of veteran players all vie for playing time on the back end of a terrifying front seven.
Prediction: Backup safety
The depth at safety is awesome. Such a huge win from the Portal to pull Walker and Mangham (and Hall and Johnson) after all the turnover in players and coaching staff.
ReplyDeleteI kind of think that Walker will eventually surpass Q Johnson in terms of snap counts (if not starting spots) but it's really a moot point since Michigan seems to like rotating safeties a good amount.
I like the analysis of the PFF grades over the season. Walker is an experienced player so perhaps at this point his ceiling is close to maxing out. But Lamar Morgan has been talking about how Michigan does things differently than other program and the Ravens D is famously complex, so I'm hopeful that as the season goes on Walker gets more comfortable and does a reasonable Rod Moore interpretation.
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