Quay Walker looked like a fit for the Raiders when he arrived in Las Vegas this offseason because the team needed help at linebacker. But even before he put on the Silver and Black, the warning label was there.
After Walker signed, Lombardi Ave’s Freddie Boston laid out the boom-or-bust profile the Raiders were getting:
"One week, Quay Walker looks like an All-Pro. Others, fans want him benched," Lombardi Ave's Freddie Boston said. "Concerns in coverage and his overall inconsistent play have prevented him from truly reaching his potential."
For a stretch early in the season, Walker was answering those doubts. Under Rob Leonard, he settled into a new role and looked much steadier than the version Packers fans knew. His coverage improved, he and Nakobe Dean helped lift the Raiders’ defense, and through the first four weeks that unit was among the very best in the NFL by several metrics.
Now the picture has changed.
Over the last few games, Walker has drifted back toward the player Green Bay fans and analysts expected Raiders fans to see. The defense around him has also slid, so he is not carrying the blame alone. Still, the drop-off is real, and Las Vegas needs him closer to the September version than the one showing up lately.
The most obvious problem is coverage. Walker has spent much of this season working in a role that blurs the line between off-ball linebacker and outside linebacker on the edge, which helped keep him away from too much coverage work early on and masked some of the issues there.
That setup worked in Weeks 1-4. It has not worked nearly as well in Weeks 5-7.
The difference is stark.
Offenses have started to isolate Walker again, and the disguises Leonard used earlier in the year are no longer fooling opponents the same way. As a result, Las Vegas has seen its veteran linebacker get exposed through the air more often than it should.
Per NFL Next Gen Stats, over the last three weeks Walker has been targeted more than any other Raiders defender not named Eric Stokes. He also has allowed the most catches and receiving yards on the team, even though he ranks only fifth in coverage snaps. That kind of imbalance is hard to ignore.
There are reasons beyond Walker, of course. He was dealing with an injury last week, and the secondary’s problems have been made worse by a pass rush that is not getting to quarterbacks quickly enough. When the rush doesn’t close, coverage gets stretched, and that has put even more pressure on the back end.
But when Walker is asked to hold up in coverage, he has not been doing his job over the past three weeks. This is not the Raiders’ biggest defensive problem, but it is still a costly one for a player being paid to tilt the field in their favor.
The answer may be to stop asking him to do so much there.
If Leonard changed Walker’s usage after Week 4, the simplest fix is to go back to what worked earlier in the season. If offenses have figured out the Raiders’ plan, then the Raiders need a new one.
That could mean keeping Walker out of coverage as often as possible and using him more as a blitzer or a spy on passing downs. If he is being used near the quarterback, Las Vegas would need more help behind him, which points toward more nickel and dime looks and fewer situations where Walker is left to cover on the second level.
Week 7 against the Los Angeles Rams showed the downside of forcing the issue. Leonard and his staff appeared to match the Rams’ heavy personnel by leaning on three linebackers, but it did not pay off. The Raiders would have been better off letting Taron Johnson handle coverage duties instead of asking Walker or Tommy Eichenberg to do it.
Walker has also been used in the slot a few snaps per game, which has put him across from receivers such as Keon Coleman, Puka Nacua and Khalil Shakir. That is not a spot where he should be living.
There is no easy cure here, but Leonard is supposed to be the kind of coordinator who can work around a player’s flaws. He already found a way to use Walker well once this year, and he needs to find that answer again.
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