Khan, Baalke, Pederson and Jaguars Officially Introduce No. 1 Pick Travon Walker

The Jaguars officially unveiled the draft's top pick on Friday afternoon.

It was hard to not see a member of the Jacksonville Jaguars grinning from ear to ear on Friday afternoon. 

Just 16 hours earlier, the Jaguars made what they are hoping will be their last No. 1 pick. Now, owner Shad Khan, general manager Trent Baalke and head coach Doug Pederson were able to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the prospect they coveted the most for the last several months: Georgia pass-rusher Travon Walker.

“I think it’s taken obviously a lot of time to be able to come up with that and I think the results speak for themselves," Khan said on Friday as the Jaguars officially introduced Walker with a teal No. 44 jersey. But I think we were all unanimous that this is absolutely the right thing for our team, for us, and Travon was going to be our number one pick.”

“I think I met Travon at the combine. Then obviously adding on to what Doug [Pederson] was talking about, I think Doug, Trent, their staff, obviously coaches, scouts, they’ve spent a lot of time really redeveloping our process full of not only collaboration but transparency. The net result is this is the direction we’re going to be going.” 

Walker had long been rumored to be the Jaguars' favorite at No. 1 overall. And after months of speculation, the Jaguars made it a reality and took Walker over players such as Michigan's Aidan Hutchinson, LSU's Derek Stingley, Oregon's Kayvon Thibodeaux, Alabama's Evan Neal, and North Carolina State's Ikem Ekwonu.

And when watching the Jaguars and their new No. 1 pick interact with a mix of joy and confidence on Friday, it wasn't hard to see why the Jaguars felt drawn to Walker and vice-versa.

The Jaguars heard the concerns about Walker's production and lack of pass-rush variety, but they bet on his talent and character. Walker heard the same things, and he is happy he landed in a spot he thinks he will be able to prove doubters wrong.

"Just to all the people that say that I can’t pass rush or do whatever I didn’t, wasn’t as productive at Georgia, I’ve never really just played one position consistently, so I feel like I’ll be able to grow as a player once I just focus on one main position," Walker said. 

"It’s very exciting because I’ve always moved around ever since I was in high school and played middle linebacker in high school. I’ve never just played one position so when people say I don’t have a lot of production, but once I do just get to train for one position then that will come on its own.”

Jacksonville has stated a desire to have Walker first learn one position before expounding his role. Baalke mentioned him as a stand-up outside linebacker in the team's 3-4 defense on Thursday, and Walker and Baalke only confirmed this on Walker's first day inside the building. 

"Obviously, the versatility is something we mentioned but getting him in a situation where he is doing one or two things in terms of techniques and letting him grow from there, that’s the vision we have," Baalke said on Friday. "We’re pretty confident after all the work that he did is that he is going to grow and he is going to grow quickly in the scheme that we have.”

“You take a deep dive into what they can do and the thing that was mentioned yesterday was production and production is a lot of things, it’s not just one metric. You look at what they do in the positions they were placed in and how that factors into the scheme that we play and he is just a really good fit for our scheme."

"I see myself playing on the edge, five technique, anything on the outside on the edge," Walker agreed. 

"At Georgia, I was just, like you said, I always told my coaches I’d do anything to get on the field so therefore, I played everything from a zero nose all the way out to a nine, wide, six technique.”