NFL Draft
11/13/24
6 min read
Jalon Walker 2025 NFL Draft: Scouting Report For Georgia Bulldogs LB
Height: 6020 (unofficial)
Weight: 245 (unofficial)
Year: Junior
Pro Comparison: Jamie Collins
Scouting Overview
Georgia Bulldogs linebacker Jalon Walker has a number of pathways to playing time. He’s a viable stack linebacker on early downs who has illustrated excellent pass-rush capabilities from both an off-ball alignment and on the edge of the defense.
Walker is built thick, has heavy hands, and booming pads that create good block deconstruction opportunities in the heart of the box. He’s got excellent linear burst and effective lateral redirection ability to pick his way through traffic and pursue the football. Walker exploded on the scene this year as a featured weapon for the Bulldogs as a junior, which makes his potential long-term outlook all that much more exciting given his instincts relative to the room he still has to grow.
2025 NFL Combine Results
TBD
Positives
- An ultimate versatility weapon on the second level of the defense — brings run defending, pass rush ability & QB spy ability
- Explosive burst and sideline-to-sideline range when triggering in pursuit
- Heavy hands help jolt and deconstruct blocks in close-quarters combat
Negatives
- Ability to play zone coverage and provide real value on these reps is minimal relative to his rush value
- Unlikely to be an attractive man-to-man coverage option on early downs
- Entered 2024 with less than 300 career snaps on defense — sample size is relatively small for assured translation to the NFL
Background
Walker played his high school football at Salisbury HS in North Carolina and is the son of a coach. Walker’s father, Curtis, has been the head coach of Catawba College for more than a decade and has previously served as the defensive coordinator for Coastal Carolina.
Jalon was a multi-sport athlete at Salisbury, playing football, basketball, and track & field. On the gridiron, Walker was awarded the 2021 Gatorade North Carolina Player of the Year award and participated in the 2022 Under Armour All-American Game as a 4-star (247 Sports) standout linebacker.
Walker’s first two seasons at Georgia were in a rotational role. He was a core special teamer during his true freshman season in 2022 and enjoyed a productive CFB Playoff run as a rotational defensive weapon. His sophomore season in 2023 saw him play in 14 games; he led the team in sacks (5.0) despite being a rotational player before assuming a more regular role for the Bulldogs entering the 2024 season.
Tale Of The Tape
Walker is a search-and-destroy heat-seeking missile for the Georgia Bulldogs. Their defensive scheme tasks him with lining up on the edge to rush or dropping down to play shallow spy vs. mobile passers and clean up any loose pockets.
His burst, range, and length are present, which allows him to cut off most QB rollouts and scrambles before they capture valuable real estate on the edge. This role comes at the expense of an added designated rusher or an added defender in space on the back end, which is something each NFL team, considering Walker’s usage, needs to individually account for. As a result, I am not sure this is a universal prospect — not every team will be able to maximize his potential.
Those teams who can are the ones willing to let him play a blend of traditional stack backer as a MIKE and as a SAM in under fronts. These roles allow Walker to fill gaps between the tackles or set the edge and use his power and heavy hands to deconstruct blocks. Walker has the first-step explosiveness to trigger against double teams and get down into the LOS from off the ball — he has the core strength and balance to run through lateral challenges and rip clean to uncover and challenge the football.
On the edge, he has enough length to stack blocks with his inside hand and turn runs back into defensive pursuit. Walker can stack or spill pulling guards and turnout blocks from tackles alike, but never mind what he’s capable of offering against skill players trying to pin and seal him on the perimeter. The variety of on/off the ball early down work opens the door for a team with depth at either linebacker or with a big safety to play personnel matchups along the front.
As a pass rusher, Walker shows some incredible instincts and variety when rushing the passer off the edge. He can win inside, win with speed, and he’s low enough to convert speed to power and agile enough to duck across the face after selling an outside charge.
These opportunities are complemented by acceleration skills and explosiveness to flash and react late to a changing landmark from the quarterback. He’s got great vision on the edge and anticipation of when a quarterback is going to drift to space. Walker is equally dangerous dropping down from the second level. Defenses can change his arrival point and create extra pre-snap work for the offensive line and opposing quarterback in order to account for him and where he’s attacking the front.
Walker is capable of shallow zone drops underneath and can tackle generic hook/curl drops from a traditional off-ball role. However, he doesn’t have the same fluidity moving backward in drops as he does moving forward or rushing, nor does he have an appealing profile for man-to-man coverage against backs or tight ends. His static agility and change of direction skills lack the same appeal and dynamic ability as what he offers when he’s playing downhill.
In all, this is a young talent who offers splendid flashes of football instincts despite not turning 21 years old until February of 2025. He’s got tremendous growth potential, as he’s only now taking full-time snaps as a part of the Bulldogs defense.
However, his father's coaching background pops off the tape with his feel for the game. So long as his NFL team leans into what he can do on and off the ball and doesn’t expect him to be a cookie-cutter player in the league, he should develop into an impact starter with disruptive ability. If I had to choose only one role, I would give him opportunities on the edge before playing him as an exclusive stack backer.
Ideal Scheme Fit, Role
Jalon Walker projects best into a multiple-front scheme that tasks their linebackers with a vast menu of responsibilities. This is a three-down player with unique value on early downs as a stack defender and on passing downs as a pass rush weapon — similar to the likes of Zach Baun and Andrew Van Ginkel.
This is not the kind of player that would fit well in vanilla schemes or in a singular role, so creative play callers or defensive depth charts with a number of versatile defensive talents to create overlap and confusion will go a long way in unlocking the best version of him.
Grade: 84.00/100.00, First Round Value
Big Board Rank: TBD
Position Rank: TBD
