After somewhat of a down year statistically compared to what Walker has become accustomed to, elevating his game again will require a renewed energy.
Walker logged 3.5 sacks in 2025, the same as his rookie year, after hitting double digits in both seasons from 2023-24, but still proved plenty valuable to a new regime helmed by general manager James Gladstone and head coach Liam Coen.
Coen, who witnessed eight-time All-Pro defensive tackle Aaron Donald’s destructiveness while previously coaching with the Los Angeles Rams, set that bar of tenacity for Walker moving forward.
“I had an almost two-hour meeting with him at the end of the season,” Coen said at the Annual League Meeting on March 31 regarding Walker, per team transcript. “Just what that looked like in terms of dominating. I was with Aaron Donald in L.A. and we literally had to take him out of practice in order for us to gain yards on offense. And so, if you want to get where you want to go and where we want you to go and where you can go, I need to be taking you out of practice so that we can operate on offense.”
Walker, for his part, said he’s up for the task: “Obviously, he’s seen Donald. He coached — he was on the team with Aaron Donald. It just kind of help put things in perspective for me to be able to just click into a different type of mindset from how I was going throughout the year, and I feel like it really dawned on me that it’s just time to ramp things up, take it to the next level.”
Matching Donald’s engine is a lofty goal — Rams defensive lineman Jared Verse learned that lesson last offseason during a session with Donald, calling it the hardest workout he’d ever done and at one point jokingly asking Donald’s wife to “call the police.” However, if habits make the player, there’s no better individual to emulate.
Walker could also see an uptick in future production if he fares better on the injury front. He’s still incredibly durable, having missed only five games in four years, but three of those absences came last season, and he mentioned health as a factor in getting back to campaigns with 10-plus sacks.
“My main thing was just working on getting healthy, and then it’s fine tuning those little, small details within my hands, eye coordination, things of that nature,” Walker said. “Just trying to keep my twitch, as far as my strength, wrist mobility, working on a lot of things but it’s just ironing out small details. The further you get in your career, it gets harder to — I wouldn’t say it gets harder to continuously elevate, it’s just you’ve got to find those small little details within your game and continuously work those things.”
Focusing on the details, maintaining his health and wrecking his offense’s best-laid plans in practice — those are the elements Walker has identified in living up to his new contract as he did his last.
Considering the $77 million in guarantees the Jaguars forked over to extend Walker’s stay in Jacksonville, they believe he can put it all together through the next half decade.
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