Spring Buzz: Freshman Linebacker Flashing Early in his Career

Georgia freshman linebacker Jalon Walker impressing at practice.

Georgia is now headed into their third week of spring practice, with G-day set for two Saturdays from now. Which means they are roughly half way through their 15 allotted practices and there have been plenty of rumblings coming from Athens. Particularly about some of these young freshmen, none more talked about the linebacker Jalon Walker. 

A freshman from Salisbury School in North Carolina, Walker is garnering quite a bit of attention this spring. With upperclassmen like Trezman Marshall and Rian Davis limited this spring, and Smael Mondon out for the spring with a torn labrum, it's Walker who is getting a load of reps, and boy is he making the most of them. 

He's made dozens of plays in the passing game through scrimmage and one on one settings and he's even doing a little bit of rushing the passer as well according to sources. 

This is a difficult defense to process and fully absorb, especially for young football players, so there's certainly still a learning curve underway, but by all accounts, Jalon Walker is next in line at what has become a staple University for NFL linebacker play. 

So what did the tape have to say about the 6-foot-3, 225-pound athlete?

"As can be seen on Walker's highlight tape, he's an immensely talented athlete that plays in space a lot. He's an outside linebacker on the high-school level, but unfortunately there are few programs that still play the traditional outside linebacker on the college level. Today, high-school outside linebackers have one of two options — become an edge rusher or an inside linebacker."

"According to sources, Walker is doing the latter for the University of Georgia. And he fits the mold of the most recent commits at the position. Georgia recruited three inside linebackers in the 2021 recruiting class: Smael Mondon, Xavian Sorey and Jamon Dumas-Johnson. Both Mondon and Sorey are 6-foot-3, 225-pound athletes being asked to play linebacker."

Walker is not only a SI99 caliber physical evaluation on tape, ranking No. 89 overall in the class of 2022, but he's an exceptional character eval as well. A consummate leader on a state championship program at Salisbury high school in North Carolina, Walker seems mature beyond his years. 

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