Credit Packers linebacker Quay Walker. When he was a rookie first-round pick out of Georgia in 2022, he struggled badly to keep his emotions in check. Playing with intensity of focus was one of his strong suits, but Walker could not quite figure out how to turn off the intensity when he came off the field.
He was ejected from a game in October of his rookie year, for shoving a Bills practice-squad player. Then he was again ejected for pushing a Lions team doctor in the season finale, as the doctor was attempting to help an injured player. Two ejections in one year left Walker with a reputation as a hothead.
On Sunday, in the 35-25 win over the Steelers on “Sunday Night Football,” Walker could have let that old reputation bubble up again.
“Today, I had a test,” he said after the game.
Quay Walker: ‘I Matured a Whole Lot’
Walker has worked to keep himself in check as his career has gone on, though. And on Sunday night in Pittsburgh, that work was put to the test during multiple scrapes with the frustrated home team. At one point in the fourth quarter, Walker had his facemask grabbed by star receiver DK Metcalf.
Rather than shove Metcalf, though, Walker just held his ground and let the penalty flag fly in–a 15-yard unnecessary roughness on Metcalf, the Steelers’ second unnecessary roughness penalty in a three-minute span. Those two calls helped to squelch any chance for a fourth-quarter comeback.
That could have been different if Walker had fought back.
“DK grabbed my facemask. I wanted to retaliate,” Walker said on “The Speakeasy” podcast. “Everything just reflected to my rookie year when I got ejected and how I felt in that situation, how long I took to give myself grace from that last time I got kicked out. I was just like, I can’t do that no more. I matured a whole lot.
“It took everything in me. But I am happy I did what I did, I am happy I went about it that way. Grown man. I am maturing so I am happy for myself.”
Packers Benefit From Quay Walker Change
For Walker, it has been part of a very conscious process to both maintain his intensity and not hurt his team by pushing things too far.
“It’s so hard, man, because I gotta really tell myself when to come down,” Walker said. “Because when I am on the field, I really like, I am a whole different person, I go into a whole different mode. You know how it is, we run into grown men for an hour straight. I am a whole different person, it takes me a while to cool down.
“Even in between plays, I still be on that. Now, I tell myself to just chill, I go back to the sideline, meditate just to calm myself down.”
Packers Will Have Free-Agent Decision
So far so good for Walker, who is in the midst of a particularly important year. The Packers, of course, turned down the fifth-year option they held on Walker heading into the season, feeling that the price (almost $15 million) was too hefty. They could work out a lower-priced extension for Walker before he hits free agency in March.
It helps his cause that he is having his best season. Walker has been healthy, with four passes defended and 1.5 sacks in seven games.
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