The Green Bay Packers hired defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley last offseason to help fortify a defense that had allowed the fifth-most rushing yards in the league in 2023. Green Bay’s defense found immediate success under Hafley, who switched the team’s base personnel to a 4-3 defensive front to better defend the run.
Third-year linebacker Quay Walker thrived in Hafley’s defense and was a significant driver of that turnaround, recording 102 tackles and a career-high nine tackles for loss. Which why is which it might seem surprising that the Packers declined to exercise the fifth-year option on his rookie contract, per ESPN’s Rob Demovsky.
The Packers allowed the seventh-fewest rushing yards and finished as the sixth-best scoring defense last season, but the schematic changes didn’t come without some turbulence. Hafley’s 4-3 defense required personnel adjustments on the defensive front, and some of Green Bay’s outside linebackers struggled in their new roles as defensive ends or off-ball linebackers.
Packers' decision on Quay Walker’s option has a good reason
Walker, a first-round pick in the 2022 NFL Draft, will now play the 2025 season on an expiring contract, but his tenure in Green Bay may not be coming to an end just yet. Demovsky noted that this option decision may have been financially motivated rather than an indictment on Walker’s role. Packers general manager Brian Gutekunst said the team would like to sign Walker to a contract extension, perhaps even before the season begins.
Walker wasn’t a viable candidate for the fifth-year option because the league uses antiquated positional designations to calculate salary. While interior defensive linemen and defensive ends have separate designations, the league does not group edge-rushing defensive ends and linebackers together. All linebackers are grouped under the same position, regardless of whether they are edge rushers or play off the ball.
Issues arise due to the difference in market value between edge rushers and off-ball linebackers. Edge rushers are among the highest-paid players in the league, regardless of whether they are linebackers in a 3-4 front or defensive ends in a 4-3 front.
Walker’s fifth-year option would have amounted to a fully guaranteed salary of $14.75 million in 2016. That figure is inflated since edge rushers in 3-4 defenses are also factored into the formula that determines the fifth-year option salary for linebackers. Walker doesn't fit that description, and Green Bay will likely be able to sign Walker for a significantly lower salary this offseason.
Green Bay selected two 4-3 defensive ends and a defensive tackle with three consecutive picks in the 2025 NFL Draft, suggesting they’ll continue to build their roster to fit Hafley’s system. Walker had no trouble adapting to the new scheme and continued to be a mainstay in the starting lineup. He has played in 44 of a possible 51 games through the first three years of his career. Although his first two seasons were mired by inconsistency, he put together a stellar season in Hafley’s system.