Jaire Alexander has Quay Walker on the way to a Pro Bowl
Right now, Green Bay Packers linebacker Quay Walker is tied with All-Pro teammate De'Vondre Campbell for the team lead in total tackles. He already has a pick-six on the year (he should have two, really) and his 10.5 total tackles per game are tied for 11th-most among all NFL defenders. He also has a tackle […]
Right now, Green Bay Packers linebacker Quay Walker is tied with All-Pro teammate De'Vondre Campbell for the team lead in total tackles. He already has a pick-six on the year (he should have two, really) and his 10.5 total tackles per game are tied for 11th-most among all NFL defenders.
He also has a tackle for loss and a QB hit on the year. The guy has been flying around and making plays through the first two games of the season and he's starting to look the guy the Packers envisioned when they took him in the first round of the 2022 NFL Draft.
The main reason for Walker's growth can be chalked up to what typically propels players forward: experience. This is Year 2 and it's about to be game No. 20 for Walker – he's not a fresh rookie just finding ways to survive, anymore. Now, it's about thriving and so far, Walker is doing just that.
"I think I'm seeing things faster, personally and just trusting my instincts," Walker told reporters Friday. "But it's Week 3 – it's a long season. [So I'm] just trying to be as consistent as I can. That's about it. I can feel the difference though, from last year and this year. I think I'm playing much more downhill, I'd say."
Walker had a pretty good rookie year, but two in-game ejections -the worst of which occurred in the season finale when he shoved a member of the Detroit Lions training staff- overshadowed his first year, to an extent. The former Bulldog adopted the label of a hothead, afterward, which is understandable.
So, in order to himself avoid future meltdowns, Walker took the advice of Packers star cornerback, Jaire Alexander, and started meditating. He quickly fell in love with it and now it's become a pregame ritual that's allowing Walker to focus and dial in on what's happening in-between the sidelines.
"[It] just calms me down and it puts me in a mind state where I'm just calm," said Walker. "Because I'm an over-thinker. Any time I can mess up on a play, it can bother me the whole game or whatever the case may be. But just by meditating, it keeps me calm and everything like that. So it's something that I pretty much enjoy. It's something that I'm gonna do probably for forever, now, just because of the mind state it puts me in."
The second-year linebacker also uses meditation during games. When things aren't going the way he wants them to go or how the Packers defense needs things to go, Walker doesn't let it get to him. Instead, it's all about what comes next and what he can do to get things on track.
"I just have a next-play mentality, or whatever the case may be," said Walker. "… I do it on the sideline too. So, say if it's a long drive, I may be frustrated a little bit, so I put a towel over my head and I just meditate… My position coach, 'KO' [inside linebackers coach Kirk Olivadotti] gives me a minute or two just to do that."
Everyone makes mistakes. The key is how they learn and grow from those poor choices. As long as people evolve and don't fall into a pattern or behavior, then it's OK to mess up from time to time.
If Walker didn't shove the Lions trainer, who knows where he'd be, right now. But that's a hypothetical neither he nor the Packers have to worry about. What's done is done and the key part, here, is that Walker is developing into a Pro Bowl-caliber player
And a big reason why is because his teammate had the presence of mind to reach out and give what looks to be career-changing advice.
"Thank God he did that," Walker said of Alexander. "… It humbled me in a way and at the same time, just by me having that, it allowed me to experience new things like meditation and everything like that.
"As bad as I hate what happened my first year, I'm kind of glad it happened at the same time. Not what I did, but what I learned from it."
Packers’ Quay Walker working on more than just his game in 2023
A couple of intense moments left a bade taste in the Packers’ first-rounder’s mouth and he’s looking to wash it out in 2023.
Featured image via Dan Powers-USA TODAY Sports
