Nakobe Dean may be getting most of the headlines in Las Vegas, but Quay Walker has become a big part of why the Raiders’ defense is humming through a 3-0 start.
Rob Leonard made that point plain Thursday.
“Him and Quay [Walker] in the center, both together, they affect the team tremendously,” Leonard said Thursday.
Dean has been the louder story, and for good reason. He’s been transcendent in Leonard’s defense. But Walker, the Raiders’ free agent addition, has settled in as the quiet force in the middle of the unit, and his growth has turned into one of the clearest examples of what Leonard and the staff wanted from this group all offseason: versatility, speed and no hesitation.
Walker’s stat line doesn’t scream star. Through three games, he has 24 tackles, one tackle for loss and a fumble recovery.
But the value is showing up in the way he’s being used and the problems that creates for offenses. He’s giving Las Vegas the kind of movable piece that makes the defense “multiple,” as Leonard likes to say.
That means Walker isn’t stuck in one spot. He’s fitting the run hard from the box.
He’s showing up on the defensive line as a sort of extra edge presence. He can blitz.
He can drop. And he can shift the picture just enough to make life miserable for opposing coordinators.
Sometimes that looks like Walker lining up in the A gap and absorbing a center so the tackles can stunt and let Maxx Crosby come screaming through the middle. Sometimes he’s dropping down from the off-ball spot and making the play himself.
Sometimes the defensive tackles are the ones bailing into coverage. The point is the same: the Raiders are giving offenses a different look almost every snap.
That flexibility is part of why Las Vegas is leading the league in takeaways. The defense is playing with confidence, and that confidence is letting everyone move faster.
Walker’s own transformation is just as striking. Compared with what Packers fans saw in Green Bay, he looks like a different player.
Last season, the criticism centered on coverage issues and missed tackles. None of that has defined his start in Las Vegas.
There’s likely been growth from Walker himself, along with coaching from linebackers coach Ronell Williams. But Leonard is also putting him in better positions, using him closer to the line of scrimmage and in the slot rather than asking him to live in the box.
The usage tells the story. Walker has played 196 defensive snaps, and 56 of them - 28.6% - have come on the defensive line. Over his career, just 4.9% of his snaps have been there, and he logged only 53 total defensive-line snaps over the last two seasons combined.
He’s also been in the slot for 31 snaps, or 15.8% of his total work, after playing only 6.5% of his snaps there last year. On top of that, 17.3% of his snaps have come outside the box, which is twice as high as any season he had in Green Bay.
The result has been better tackling and much cleaner coverage. Walker’s missed tackle rate is down to 4.0% this season, more than half of his career rate of over 8.0%.
And the coverage numbers stand out even more. Last season, Walker opened the year by giving up 30 or more receiving yards in each of the first seven games.
In every game but one, he allowed 19 or more receiving yards. In every game but three, he gave up 30 or more.
This year, he has allowed 16, 17 and 10 receiving yards in the Raiders’ first three games. He has been targeted 10 times on 102 coverage snaps, allowed eight catches for 43 yards, and posted an 84.6 quarterback rating when targeted.
For his career, Walker has allowed a 107.8 quarterback rating when targeted, and he was at 122.9 last year. In 11 games last season, including the first six, he gave up five or more receptions. This year, he has allowed just three, two and three catches.
A change of scenery can matter. So can being used the right way.
Walker is getting both, and the early returns suggest he’s become a much more complete player in Las Vegas. That evolution is a big reason the Raiders’ defense looks the way it does right now.
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