Scouting Profile: Jalon Walker - EDGE - Georgia
Sales Pitch: Dynamic and versatile defensive weapon. Tweener build may leave him without a true home at the next level but the burst and pass rush upside is worth taking a swing on.
*Gold Numbers Indicate NCAA T-25 for 2024*
Scouting Report
Jalon Walker is a former 4-Star recruit from North Carolina. He was a three sport star in high school, lettering in football, basketball and track and field. Walker was a rotational player his first couple years at Georgia but broke out in 2024, receiving All-American and All-SEC honors, as well as winning the Butkus Award for the best linebacker in the country.
Walker is a dynamic and versatile defensive weapon. Georgia listed him as a LB but he split time between off-ball LB and EDGE for most of his career. Walker is an exceptional athlete with tremendous speed and burst. He has true sideline to sideline range as a pursuit defender in the run game. Despite being on the smaller side when he plays on the line of scrimmage he plays with reckless abandon and takes the fight to bigger players. Walker was used from a variety of alignments as a rusher in college, largely relying on speed to win. His first step burst allows him to quickly win past tackles upfield shoulders, with the agility to counter back inside. He displays the bend and closing speed to turn the corner and finish sacks at a consistent clip. Walker shows the ability to convert speed to power at a very high level when rushing from wide alignments and as a blitzer. His burst and length allow him to get significant initial knockback and reset the pocket as a rusher. Walker’s movement skills and experience as a linebacker allow him to drop into coverage from the edge or traditional stack positions. He is also a weapon on stunts and twists, as well as a perfect candidate to be a QB spy versus mobile QBs.
The biggest question for Walker will be what does he play at the next level. The intrigue of being a chess piece on that side of the ball comes with the downside of having no true home. He has the speed and size to be an exceptional off-ball linebacker but doesn’t show the instincts. He is routinely fooled by misdirection and struggles to attack downhill in the run game. His coverage drops and awareness are also a major work in progress. Walker’s best trait right now is his ability to win as a pass rusher off the edge but he lacks the size traditionally looked for at that spot. He struggles to hold up at the point of attack in the run game and is easy displaced by offensive lineman. He also relies heavily on his physical tools to win as a pass rusher, his lack of experience showing up in his pass rush plan where he has no real go to moves.
Walker profiles as an on-ball OLB in an odd front who slides down to a more traditional EDGE in nickel. Given his physical tools and pass rush upside, the right landing spot - a scheme that utilizes his versatility and athleticism - would result in one of the leagues best defensive weapons, but the floor is very low. Walker projects as a late Day-1 upside pick but given his tools could end up going much higher. A prototypical boom-bust prospect he has one of the widest outcome ranges in this entire class.