Georgia's Travon Walker is No. 1 pick in 2022 NFL Draft
Georgia defensive lineman Travon Walker is off the board early in the 2022 NFL Draft, headed to Jacksonville Jaguars with the number one overall pick.
Walker, a native of Thomaston, Ga. and a product of Upson-Lee High School, was a five-star in the Class of 2019 and the No. 4-ranked defensive lineman. He played in 36 career games recording 65 tackles with 13.0 tackles for loss including 9.5 sacks. Walker also forced one fumble while recovering two.
This past season, Walker was a starter along the defensive line in all 15 games. Playing 56 percent of total defensive snaps, he logged more time than any other Georgia defensive lineman, including two others with the potential to be picked tonight in the first round. Walker finished the season with 37 tackles, 6.0 quarterback sacks, 7.5 tackles for loss and a team-high 36 quarterback hurries. His career-high seven quarterback pressures came in the National Championship Game against Alabama while he twice set a career-best number of tackles on the year, first with four in the season-opening win over Clemson before topping that with five against Kentucky.
Coming in at 6-foot-5 and 272-pounds at the NFL Combine, Walker received a 6.48 prospect grade according to the NFL’s Next Gen Stats. That put him in the category of “will become good starter within two years” and as the No. 14 player in the draft. However, teams throughout the draft process seemed to value Walker’s potential over his production, and as a result, he moved up the board in mock drafts over the course of the process, becoming the betting favorite to be the No. 1 overall pick within the last week.
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“He didn’t just line up and rush on the edge,” Georgia head coach Kirby Smart said this spring about the way that the Bulldogs used Walker and why there’s potential for him to do even more at the next level “There’s several NFL scouts that say, ‘Hey you just line him up at outside backer and let him set an edge, he’s going to be tremendous at that.’ He’s really strong, he’s really fast. But that’s not what we asked him to do. We asked him to do a lot of different things. His value comes, like you said, in workouts. He’s a freak. He’s got a lot of length. He’s an incredible athlete and he’s going to be a high draft pick.”
Other Walker Stories You Might Be Interested In
- Travon Walker talks Georgia’s championship win on Good Morning Football
- Top three plays from the career of Travon Walker ahead of 2022 NFL Draft
- Travon Walker favorite for No. 1 pick per two sportsbooks
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