quay walker
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New Las Vegas Raiders LB Quay Walker.
The Las Vegas Raiders have spent big money trying to fortify the defense in free agency. Linebacker was a particularly glaring need heading into the season, so the team signed Quay Walker and Nakobe Dean to big contracts.
Walker, a former first-round pick, signed a three-year, $40.5 million contract. That doesn’t make him one of the highest-paid linebackers in the NFL, but it is a healthy payday.
Despite being a former first-round pick, not everybody was high on his ability heading into free agency. ESPN’s Seth Walder believes the Raiders made a mistake by signing Walker to that contract.
“Walker has been effective as a blitzer, with an 81st percentile pass rush win rate among off-ball linebackers over the past two seasons,” Walker wrote. “Coverage numbers for linebackers are noisy, but Walker’s 1.0 yards allowed per coverage snap is slightly higher than average and he has allowed positive EPA in every season in his career, per NFL Next Gen Stats.
“Ultimately, though, this is real money for a linebacker who has played a lot but been just OK through his rookie contract — as evidenced by the Packers turning down his fifth-year option a year ago. If I were the Raiders, I probably would have thought about spending this money elsewhere.”
Raiders Get Higher Marks for Dean Signing
Dean and Walker played together at Georgia in college and remain very close. The latter has been healthier and played more games in his career, while the former has had trouble staying healthy.
However, pundits are much higher on the Dean signing, who signed a similar contract.
“Dean gets mixed reviews for his run stopping, but his tackle rate — the percentage of opponent run plays he records a tackle or assist on — against the run is a remarkable 25%, which ranks in the 96th percentile among off-ball linebackers,” Walder wrote. “His run stop win rate is solid too, landing in the 90th percentile over that span, though I should note his numbers dropped in both metrics from 2024 to 2025. His 14.1% missed tackle rate last season was also higher than the 11.5% average for linebackers, per NFL Next Gen Stats.
“The Raiders went out and signed Dean and Quay Walker to play linebacker as part of their free agent spending frenzy Monday. I think the contract is about right for Dean, and Las Vegas could potentially look back on this deal for a player entering his prime as a value given his level of play in 2024 and that he was coming off an injury (and had a shortened year) in 2025.”
Regardless, Raiders Are Better at LB Now
The Walker contract might not look great for the Raiders in the future, but it’s hard to blame them for trying. He was one of the top linebackers on the market, and he’s easily an upgrade over what the team had last season.
The trio of Jamal Adams, Devin White and Elandon Roberts all remain unsigned so far, which is a sign they aren’t highly valued across the NFL. The duo of Walker and Dean should be much better than what the Raiders have had.