HEADLINES

Walker Little

OL Notes: Bolles, Chiefs, 49ers, Texans, Jags

December 15th, 2024 at 12:12pm CST by Sam Robinson

For a second time, the Broncos allowed Garett Bolles to play deep into a contract year before extending him. After the sides previously reached an extension agreement in November 2020, Bolles inked his second Denver extension days before the team’s Week 15 game. Talks did not begin until recently. The sides did not begin to discuss a new deal — one Bolles had begun to lobby for back in 2023 — until after the Broncos’ win over the Browns, 9News’ Mike Klis notes. While Bolles held Myles Garrett without a sack, the Broncos’ upcoming bye week presumably had more to do with the timing of the negotiations.

Bolles is now the NFL’s sixth-highest-paid left tackle. Like recently extended edge rusher Jonathon Cooper, he may well have done better by reaching free agency. But Bolles wanted to stay with the team that drafted him back in 2017. The four-year, $82MM contract includes $23.7MM guaranteed at signing and features a similar guarantee structure to the one Mike McGlinchey secured. If Bolles is on Denver’s roster by Day 5 of the 2025 league year, his 2026 base salary becomes guaranteed, per OverTheCap. As the Broncos have part two of Russell Wilson‘s dead money due in 2025, they have predictably backloaded Bolles’ deal. This is a rather extreme effort, as five void years (through 2033) are attached to this deal. Bolles will count $5.8MM on Denver’s 2025 cap and just $9.2MM in 2026; the cap hits balloon past $20MM after that.

Here is the latest from the NFL’s O-line situations:

  • Unable to find a reliable left tackle since letting Orlando Brown Jr. leave in 2023, the Chiefs are going with an emergency plan today. With recent signee D.J. Humphries declared out due to a hamstring injury he sustained in his Kansas City debut, the Chiefs are kicking Joe Thuney to left tackle. The left guard saw time at LT against the Raiders, who were besting second-year blocker Wanya Morris. Rather than go with Morris, the Chiefs are using Thuney at LT and backup Mike Caliendo at LG, per ESPN.com’s Adam Teicher. This will cut into the Chiefs’ elite inside trio, but with the team seeing Patrick Mahomes hit with more frequency in recent weeks, it will use this patchwork adjustment to stem the tide. A 2023 UDFA, Caliendo is making his first career start.
  • On the same note, the Texans are making a change. Right tackle Tytus Howard is moving back to left guard, KPRC2’s Aaron Wilson notes. Both center Juice Scruggs and left guard Kenyon Green are out. As a result, Howard will return to the position he primarily played last season. Howard has shuffled between tackle and guard as a pro; prior to his 812-snap 2024 at RT, he played all 408 of his 2023 snaps at LG. Second-round pick Blake Fisher is in at RT.
  • Trent Williams‘ recovery from an ankle injury has proven “a lot” slower than the 49ers expected, Kyle Shanahan said (via ESPN.com’s Nick Wagoner). The team is not ruling him out for the rest of the season. That said, San Francisco is now 5-8; shelving the All-Pro the rest of the way would make sense. Williams, 36, secured significant guarantees via a September reworking. He has not indicated a 2025 return will commence, but his through-2026 contract contains enticements to come back.
  • The Bears should be likely to be shoppers to fortify their O-line’s interior in 2025, with the Chicago Tribune’s Brad Biggs rating that area atop the team’s list of needs. Chicago whiffed on Nate Davis and devoted low-end money to center. Left guard Teven Jenkins is a free agent-to-be who has not engaged in substantive extension talks.
  • Like Bolles, Walker Little secured an extension recently. The Jaguars revealed their long-term left tackle plan, post-Cam Robinson, by signing Little to a three-year, $40.5MM extension. The first two years of Little’s deal are fully guaranteed, per OverTheCap. That comes out to $25.94MM. Although his 2027 salary is nonguaranteed, the 2021 second-rounder did well on the guarantee front as he bypasses free agency.

Jaguars, LT Walker Little Agree To Extension

December 1st, 2024 at 10:04pm CST by Rory Parks

The Jaguars have agreed to a three-year, $45MM extension with left tackle Walker Little, as ESPN’s Adam Schefter was first to report. The deal, which features $26MM in guaranteed money, will keep Little under club control through 2027.

Little, 25, was selected by Jacksonville in the second round of the 2021 draft and saw just six regular season starts over his first two professional seasons. However, three of those games — along with two more postseason appearances as a starter — came at the end of the Jaguars’ exciting 2022 campaign, when the club rallied to a playoff berth and won a memorable wildcard round bout against the Chargers. Little’s efforts during that stretch earned the praise of quarterback Trevor Lawrence.

This season, speaking shortly after the Jags traded longtime LT Cam Robinson to the Vikings (thereby paving the way for Little), Lawrence said, “[Little] had to come in, in ‘22 when Cam got hurt, and finish the season when we were on that run. We didn’t skip a beat because he was prepared, and he prepared every day like a starter. … [H]e’s more than ready and he’s done a great job. I’m excited for him. I’ve got all the faith in the world, and he’s played great so far” (h/t John Shipley of SI.com).

Little received extensive work in 2023 thanks in large part to Robinson’s PED suspension and subsequent knee injury (though some of Little’s action came at left guard). In 14 games (11 starts), Little was flagged for seven penalties and yielded 26 total pressures, seven of which got home for sacks. That amounted to a middling 58.8 overall grade from Pro Football Focus, which positioned him as the 58th-best tackle out of 81 qualifiers.

Now the unquestioned starter at left tackle in the wake of this year’s Robinson trade, Little has started each of the Jags’ last four games and has allowed just one sack and three QB hits during that time. PFF has assigned him a strong 67.9 overall mark for his 2024 work, and his performance to date has convinced Jacksonville brass that Little is the right player to protect Lawrence’s blind side for the foreseeable future.

Naturally, GM Trent Baalke was “heavily involved” in the Little negotiations, as Schefter confirms. Of course, Baalke is very much on the hot seat, so it is at least notable that he is making major decisions that will impact the long-term future of the Jaguars. A rival executive tells Schefter that the Little extension is a sign that Baalke is planning to remain with the club, though Eric Branch of the San Francisco Chronicle throws some cold water on that notion. As Branch reminds us, Baalke authorized a five-year, $35MM deal for tight end Vance McDonald in December 2016, when Baalke was serving as GM of the 49ers. Baalke was fired less than a month later.

Regardless of what it means for Baalke’s future, Little’s new contract likely takes the 2-9 Jaguars out of the running for an offensive tackle when they make their first pick of the 2025 draft, as ESPN’s Field Yates posits.

Jaguars Featuring Position Battles At RT, C

June 20th, 2022 at 6:27pm CST by Sam Robinson

Although the Jaguars spent wildly in free agency, it is possible four of their primary five starters from last year’s offensive line reprise their roles in 2022. But competitions are revealing themselves ahead of training camp.

Tyler Shatley, the team’s longest-tenured player, will attempt to hold off third-round pick Luke Fortner at center, while John Reid of the Florida Times-Union notes three-year right tackle starter Jawaan Taylor is not a lock to keep his job. Walker Little, a 2021 second-round pick, looks to have a good chance to unseat the ex-Florida Gator.

Third-year blocker Ben Bartch and big-ticket free agency pickup Brandon Scherff are set to be Jacksonville’s first-string guards, with the recently extended Cam Robinson in place at left tackle. Taylor has played opposite Robinson throughout his career, being one of the NFL’s most durable players in that span. The 24-year-old right tackle has not missed a game, and the Jags have turned to the 2019 35th overall pick as a starter in every one of those contests.

Pro Football Focus viewed Taylor as a slightly better blocker in 2021 than he was in 2020, but it still graded the 6-foot-5 lineman as the Jags’ worst regular up front. Taylor’s 12 penalties led all O-linemen last season. Little played 225 offensive snaps as a rookie, working as the swingman behind Robinson and Taylor, but Reid views the Stanford product as the likely favorite to be Jacksonville’s 2022 right tackle. This would relegate Taylor to a swing role, representing bad timing for him on that front. As a 2023 free agent-to-be, Taylor has an opportunity to audition for other teams this season.

Little missed nearly two full seasons, suffering an ACL tear early in 2019 and opting out of the COVID-19-altered 2020 Pac-12 slate. PFF graded he and Robinson as middling blockers, though the latter obviously played far more snaps.

Shatley, 31, filled in for the injured (and now-retired Brandon Linder) frequently during the past two seasons, starting 18 games. The Jags made Fortner their only O-line pick this year. The Kentucky product made 36 straight starts, using his additional eligibility year to vault onto the Day 2 radar. A former UDFA, Shatley would become the Jags’ interior swingman again if beaten out for the Week 1 snapping gig.

Jaguars Looking At OL Ekwonu With Top Pick

March 6th, 2022 at 4:13pm CST by Ely Allen

We wrote a bit in January about NC State’s Ikem Ekwonu potentially being the best offensive lineman in the draft. Well, he certainly thinks so, as he told reporters at the NFL Scouting Combine Thursday that he’d “definitely deserve” to be drafted No. 1 overall, according to Darryl Slater of NJ.com. 

He’s not totally off base in his thinking. ESPN’s Mel Kiper mocked Ekwonu to Jacksonville in his latest mock draft just before the Combine. According to Albert Breer of Sports Illustrated, many at the Combine, including ESPN’s Todd McShay, expected Ekwonu to blow up in Indianapolis.

There’s already been a bit of talk connecting Ekwonu to the Jaguars. General manager Trent Baalke has a tendency to prefer explosive linemen and Ekwonu demonstrated his explosiveness in field drills including an impressive sub-5.00 second 40-yard dash. Baalke and new head coach Doug Pederson will be looking to put together a group at offensive line that can protect former No. 1 overall pick Trevor Lawrence and create holes for running backs James Robinson and Travis Etienne.

Jawaan Taylor is expected to compete with Walker Little for the right tackle job. Captain Brandon Linder should return to form at center after MCL and ankle injuries forced him to miss a large part of the 2021 NFL season. Andrew Norwell is expected to hit the free agent market and Cam Robinson could join him if the team decides not to utilize their franchise tag on Robinson for the second straight year. Veteran sixth-man Tyler Shatley was recently re-signed and Ben Bartch could help out at guard. So the versatility of Ekwonu could line him up as the perfect choice for Jacksonville’s current situation, where lots of question marks surround the depth chart. Even so, the Jaguars could also fall in love with Evan Neal, who is largely seen as the top pure tackle in the draft.

Still, the redshirt sophomore out of Raleigh is a young, talented prospect with the ability to dominate at tackle or guard. Even if he slips past Jacksonville at No. 1 overall, don’t expect him to be available after both New York teams get a chance to draft. Ekwonu will aim to be only the third Wolfpack offensive lineman in history to be picked in the first round, the highest-drafted Wolfpack prospect since Bradley Chubb in 2018, and, above that, the first top overall pick out of NC State since Mario Williams in 2006.

Will Jags’ Tag Cam Robinson Again?

February 19th, 2022 at 8:24pm CST by Ely Allen

Almost five years ago, the Jaguars drafted Alabama offensive tackle Cam Robinson. Seen by many as a potential first rounder, Robinson fell to the Jaguars’ second-round pick with some red flags from a previous arrest and some injury issues that held him out of the Combine and parts of his Pro Day. 

Robinson immediately earned the starting left tackle position as a rookie and started 15 games in 2017. After suffering a torn ACL in Week 2 of the 2018 NFL season, Robinson missed the rest of his sophomore year in the league.

Once his rookie contract expired at the end of the 2020 season, it was rumored the Jaguars were going to allow Robinson to test the free agent market. Robinson was certainly not considered a top 5 offensive tackle, so tagging him and paying him the average salary of the top 5 players at his position seemed like a fairly large stretch. But with a lack of options to replace the young tackle and the price tag of what few options were available, the Jaguars bit the bullet and paid Robinson.

Now, a year later, Jacksonville is faced with a similar issue: Do they tag Robinson for a second straight year or trust the options available to them this year?

Tagging Robinson is a simple option. On the upside, it secures three sure starters for the 2022 season on the offensive line, they know exactly what it will cost them, and, while he wasn’t quite a top 5 offensive tackle, Robinson played the best football of his career this past season. The downside is that, when you tag a player two years in a row, you don’t pay the average of the top 5 players of the position in Year 2, you pay 120% of the previous year’s salary. With Robinson’s salary last year paying him $13.75MM, a 20% raise would net him $16.5MM in 2022.

If the Jaguars decide to let Robinson walk, they’re not bereft of options. Internally, they did draft Walker Little in the second round last year and saw him start three games in limited time this season. If they think Little can play up to or near the level of play of Robinson, he would be a much cheaper option. The Jaguars also hold the number one pick of the 2022 NFL Draft. Many mock drafts have seen fellow Alabama-alum Evan Neal mocked as the top draft pick, but few see Neal as a true homerun pick at the top of the draft.

There’s lots of work to be done on the Jaguars’ offensive line, and new offensive line coach Phil Rauscher will likely have a say in the game plan. Jawaan Taylor has started every game since being drafted in 2019 and is expected to start at right tackle. Veteran and captain Brandon Linder should return to form after MCL and ankle injuries forced him to miss a large part of the 2021 season. Tagging Robinson would secure another tackle position and leave the guards as the only questions. With Andrew Norwell expected to hit the free agent market, Ben Bartch could fill one of the open guard positions, but the other would be open to either an unproven back up or a rookie.

Regardless of where it comes from, Robinson’s next paycheck is expected to be a large one. If the Jaguars decide not to tag or extend him, a team hungry for offensive line help is sure to take a flier and pay out for the 26-year-old tackle.

Jaguars Place DJ Chark On IR

October 4th, 2021 at 3:11pm CST by Zachary Links

The Jaguars have placed D.J. Chark on the injured reserve list following his ankle fracture. They’ve also done the same with offensive lineman A.J. Cann (knee injury) while activating offensive tackle Walker Little from the COVID-19 list. 

Chark’s ankle bent backwards in last week’s game against the Bengals. Afterwards, he was unable to put weight on his leg and ultimately had to be carted off the field.

Chark, a former second-round pick, enjoyed a breakout campaign in 2019, finishing with 1,028 yards from scrimmage and eight touchdowns. His numbers took a step back in 2020, and through the first three games of the 2021 campaign, he hauled in only seven receptions for 154 yards and two touchdowns. There’s no word yet on his timetable, but it’ll be a while before he retakes the field. In the meantime, Trevor Lawrence will feed to top receivers Marvin Jones and Laviska Shenault.

Cann has spent his entire career with the Jags, serving as a starter in each of his seven seasons. He’s hardly missed time along the way, but his Thursday night injury left him with no other choice.

Now at 0-4, the short-handed Jaguars will try their luck against the Titans this week.

NFL Draft Pick Signings: 7/20/21

July 20th, 2021 at 10:54pm CST by Ben Levine

Here are today’s draft pick signings:

Baltimore Ravens

Buffalo Bills

Jacksonville Jaguars

New England Patriots

Pittsburgh Steelers

The pair of Jaguars rookies are the most notable names on the list. The Georgia product rebounded from an injury-plagued 2019 campaign, finishing with 29 tackles, five passes defended, and one interception. The Jaguars selected Campbell with the first selection of the second round, and he should compete for a starting gig right away. Meanwhile, Little was selected with the 45th pick of the draft following a standout collegiate career that saw him earn first-team All-Pac-12 honors. He’ll likely have to work his way into playing time behind Cam Robinson and/or Jawaan Taylor.

Meanwhile, the Steelers’ signing of Green means the team has officially inked their entire draft class to rookie contracts.

Pac-12 To Begin Play Nov. 6

September 24th, 2020 at 6:15pm CST by Sam Robinson

The Pac-12 has reached an agreement to play an abbreviated schedule in 2020. The conference will begin play Nov. 6, according to ESPN.com’s Kyle Bonagura and Heather Dinich.

The last of the Power 5 conferences to finalize a 2020 start date, the conference will play seven games before a Dec. 18 conference championship game. This date comes two days before the College Football Playoff committee is scheduled to determine its four playoff-bound teams.

While none of the college conferences are operating normally in this historically unusual season, the Pac-12’s seven-game season will be the shortest among the leagues. The western-based conference nixed its fall season shortly after the Big Ten did in August, but an agreement to conduct daily testing helped push the league toward an earlier-than-expected return. The Big Ten moved to begin play Oct. 24 earlier this month.

Multiple first-round-caliber talents from the Pac-12 have opted out of the season, with the conference previously tabling all sport start dates until at least New Year’s Day. Oregon tackle Penei Sewell — a top-five 2021 prospect — was the most notable player to do so, with Stanford tackle Walker Little also declaring he will prepare for the draft early. A few prominent Big Ten opt-outs backtracked on their decisions after the conference’s announcement of an October start date. It would not be surprising to see Pac-12 players follow suit.

Extra Points: Ownership, Draft, QBs, Cap

September 14th, 2019 at 4:26pm CST by Sam Robinson

As we move closer to Week 2 Sunday, plenty of storylines have surfaced — much of them out of the AFC East. Antonio Brown is on track to make his Patriots debut, Minkah Fitzpatrick may or may not be on the trade block, and a mono-stricken Sam Darnold will miss the Jets’ Monday-nighter against the Browns. But let’s shift to a few items on the league’s periphery.

  • The NFL recently discussed some changes to its ownership policy. With franchise values skyrocketing, the league’s rule requires prospective owners to put up at least 30% of the price. This has produced limited buyers, at least it did with during the Panthers sale. (Current franchise valuations would force bidders to put up at least $600MM.) Seeking input from a quartet of firms involved in franchise sales, NFL owners discussed several matters on the topic of acquiring teams but made only one change recently. Owners of non-NFL teams in NFL markets — such as Steve Ballmer, Mark Cuban, etc. — can now make bids to acquire NFL franchises, Scott Soshnick of Bloomburg.com reports.
  • Georgia quarterback Jake Fromm regularly appears in 2020 mock drafts as a first-round pic, but various NFL personnel are now not so sure he will be part of that class. Executives and scouts polled by Bleacher Report’s Matt Miller expect Fromm to return to school for what would be his senior season in 2020. Operating a run-first offense, Fromm has displayed improved accuracy since being handed the Bulldogs’ reins as a true freshman. However, he’s viewed as perhaps a cut below the likes of Tua Tagovailoa and Justin Herbert on the 2020 prospect spectrum.
  • Were Fromm to postpone his NFL entrance, he would likely be joining one of the more hyped quarterbacks in modern draft history. Clemson’s Trevor Lawrence has begun to generate more buzz than Tagovailoa or Herbert, leaving NFL brass to question the Dolphins’ strategy of using this season to tank for a possible franchise quarterback. “Next year, though? Oh, yeah. Let me get [Ohio State’s] Justin Fields or Trevor Lawrence, and our fans won’t care how many games we lose,” an NFL GM told Miller.
  • Projected first-round tackle Walker Little, a junior at Stanford, underwent knee surgery and will miss the rest of the season, per Miller. The 6-foot-7 blocker will then have to determine whether or not to enter the NFL off a lost season or return to school to rebuild his stock.
  • Despite the Dolphins‘ run of moves to jettison higher-profile talent, they are not projected to possess the most cap space in 2020. As of now, that’s the Colts, who are in line to hold $138MM, Jason Fitzgerald of OverTheCap tweets. Miami sits second at $113MM, with no other teams over $100MM. These figures are imprecise with the 2020 cap not yet set, but the Colts’ caution this year in free agency — despite holding more than $100MM in space — stands to again equip the franchise with plenty to spend come March.
  • Free agent wide receiver Cayleb Jones is serving a six-game suspension, according to veteran NFL reporter Howard Balzer (on Twitter). The younger brother of Zay Jones, Cayleb Jones was charged with domestic assault as a member of the Vikings during the summer of 2018. He did not make Minnesota’s 53-man roster.