If you’re not hyperactive on social media, you probably don’t know Rickey, aka Slick Rick, an X account that has been ahead of the news on several NFL transactions over the years. Yes, his avatar is a dog wearing shades and an NFL hat. 2025 is a weird time for the news and rumors space.
Last week, Rickey tweeted that the Green Bay Packers “hope to have done” an extension with left tackle Rasheed Walker before training camp, which begins on July 23rd — a month from today. Mind you, the Packers just drafted two college tackles, Jordan Morgan and Anthony Belton, in the first two rounds of the last two drafts and have a standing contract dispute with fellow offensive lineman Elgton Jenkins, but those are entirely separate issues on their own.
Today, let’s just focus on what a Walker extension would actually look like. Walker, a member of the 2022 draft class, is going into the final year of his rookie deal. Over the last two years, he’s started 32 of a possible 34 regular-season games for the Packers. Among the 30 left tackles who have played at least 1,000 snaps (regular and postseason) over the last two seasons, Walker ranks 20th in the NFL with a 70.7 overall offensive grade according to Pro Football Focus. For what it’s worth, he has a 79.3 pass blocking grade (16th of 30) and a 54.0 run blocking grade (25th of 30).
The short scouting report is that the Packers turned a seventh-round pick into an average pass-blocking left tackle who still has room to grow as a run blocker. It’s worth remembering, though, that good pass-blocking tackles typically play on the left side in the NFL. If Walker’s 79.3 pass blocking grade translated to right tackle, the only right tackles to beat him per PFF’s grading over the last two years would have been Philadelphia’s Lane Johnson and Carolina’s Taylor Moton. He just edged out a trio of NFC North right bookends in Penei Swell (78.4), Brian O’Neill (78.2) and Zach Tom (77.7).
So, Walker is an average starting left tackle in the pass blocking department, but even an average left tackle is an above-average overall tackle when we talk about that sliding scale.
So, what do you pay for that type of player? Well, the big contract that Walker’s people will probably point to is the one that former Pittsburgh Steelers left tackle Dan Moore Jr. signed this offseason with the Tennessee Titans. Moore, who ranked 26th among 30 qualifying left tackles for Pro Football Focus over the last two years, signed a four-year, $82 million deal in free agency this year.
Moore’s deal actually translates pretty well to the Packers’ line of thinking, as Green Bay is one of the few teams in the league that actually prefers to sign players to four-year contracts rather than three-year contracts.
Below is the breakdown of Moore’s cap hits by year:
Year 1: $10.9 million
Year 2: $26.4 million
Year 3: $22.1 million
Year 4: $22.6 million
If you’re thinking, “An average veteran tackle is going to cost me more than $20 million per year in today’s NFL,” you’ve hit the nail on the head. As we’ve explained in previous articles, the biggest gains we’ve seen salary-wise in the NFL recently have come from non-Pro Bowl veteran starters coming off of rookie deals, as they’re the players who are actually hitting the free agent market while the cap is rising about $25 million per year. The Walker demographic is the exact type of player who is seeing the largest salary increase in the league at the moment.
For perspective, the $20.5 million per year average salary that Moore signed for this offseason would rank fourth-highest among Packers players, behind only quarterback Jordan Love ($55 million), defensive end Rashan Gary ($24 million) and defensive tackle Kenny Clark ($21.3 million), ahead of guard Aaron Banks ($19.3 million), center Elgton Jenkins ($17 million), safety Xavier McKinney ($16.8 million), cornerback Nate Hobbs ($12 million) and running back Josh Jacobs ($12 million).
Keeping any starting veteran offensive lineman is not going to be cheap in today’s NFL. Paying the combination of Banks, Jenkins, Walker and Zach Tom, another tackle in a contract season, would be nearly impossible. That’s probably why Jenkins saw the writing on the wall and tried to force the team to reach an extension with him, but according to at least one dog wearing a hat on social media, the Packers seem to be interested in other extension options available to them.