As we approach the 4 pm ET start of the new league year, former Green Bay Packers left tackle Rasheed Walker is the top remaining free agent on the board, according to our consensus board that tracks the ranking of 29 different online rankings. Walker came into the week ranked as the 6th overall free agent in the class, and only two other top-20 free agents remain: quarterback Kyler Murray (who apparently won’t be officially released until the new league year) and receiver Jauan Jennings.
Walker’s
market is interesting because he was expected to be the only offensive tackle to receive truly big money this offseason. He’s genuinely the only true starter (not a part-time guy) who is coming off a rookie contract. So what’s happening or has happened to the rest of the tackle market doesn’t really apply to him, since it was already projected that he’d make about twice as much as any other free agent tackle. He was sort of in a tier of his own coming in.
Still, the fact that he’s still on the market probably means that teams aren’t giving him the number that his camp is expecting, or that the teams who are willing to hand him that number are waiting to pull the trigger. Why wait? Well, the big question right now in the tackle market is whether the San Francisco 49ers will end up releasing left tackle Trent Williams, the 37-year-old 12-time Pro Bowler. The two sides have been unable to reach terms on a new contract, and reports from San Francisco have gone back and forth over whether a release is a legitimate option in this situation.
Maybe the new league year will be the deadline to spur action on the Williams and Walker front.
