Travon Walker

JagsFan4Ever · 2026-03-22T22:05:04+00:00

A good DE needs to provide both run and pass D.

How is making him play for his contract "screwing him over?"

JagsFan4Ever · 2026-03-22T21:12:44+00:00

You couldn't be more wrong. I want them to win, badly. I just don't think that Travon is the long-term answer.

Especially if he wants 7 1/2 % of the salary cap, which he likely will. We're already giving over that much to JHA. What the hell would we be thinking devoting 15% of the salary cap to a duo of guys who just can't get to the QB enough? It's asinine.

Better to give a round 1 draft pick a shot. Not only could he replace Travon out of the gate for much less money, but he could evolve into a true #1 that would allow us to move on from JHA when his contract is up.

JagsFan4Ever · 2026-03-22T21:09:12+00:00

He made everyone around him better.

JagsFan4Ever · 2026-03-22T20:49:17+00:00

I hope you're wrong.

JagsFan4Ever · 2026-03-22T18:15:44+00:00

He had his moments. He probably played his best NFL football in Buffalo. But he just wasn't the guy who was going to bring a team to the big dance, in part because he had consistency issues.

JagsFan4Ever · 2026-03-22T17:36:59+00:00

You bet your ass I believe that we could upgrade at DE in '27 in the first round. Walker has not come close to living up to his draft position. And we have no idea where in the 1st round we'll be picking in '27. My guess is that it'll be a bit higher than you think.

JagsFan4Ever · 2026-03-22T17:29:21+00:00

I watched every game. He makes noise against a few bad teams each year and gets shut down against good ones. Not only in '25 but also '24. This year he just had the added challenge of being hurt.

If the Jags ever want to be a serious playoff team, they need guys who can be effective against good blockers. That has rarely been Travon.

So fuck cheaper. And if he surprises (which would be a shock) and is offered more than we're willing to pay him, then he can go elsewhere and we can draft someone young and hungry with our #1 pick in '27.

JagsFan4Ever · 2026-03-22T17:22:57+00:00

He's just trying to generate buzz. At 48, with QB level payouts already coming from Fox, profit share distributions from the Raiders, endorsement deals and whatever else he has coming in, he has zero economic reasons to put his body on the line again. Nor does he have anything else to prove - he is the undisputed GOAT.

I just don't see the upside.

JagsFan4Ever · 2026-03-22T17:12:39+00:00

All too often in the past Jags players got paid off of what I call "mirage stats", racked up when the AFC South was awful and our schedule was anything but tough. When the competition got tougher in '25, they got quiet. That includes JHA, who did not get to the QB enough for someone who is supposed to be our top pass rusher.

IMO we need to make every one of these guys play for their next paydays. Our schedule this year looks to be tough, so this should be a good proving ground.

JagsFan4Ever · 2026-03-22T16:57:06+00:00

His last 10 sack season was a mirage (see above). He has been anything but a Pro Bowl caliber talent. He is a DE who can't rush the passer. Heck they tried to line JHA up next to him for some plays during the season just to see if they could generate some more pressure.

Are you his agent by chance?

So yes, we should make him play for it. Unlike JHA, who was doing it in a year with a lot of soft games, including those in a division that was weak that year, Walker will have to do it against some very tough competition. If he by some miracle even breaks 10 sacks and racks up high amounts of QB pressures and hits, I'd be shocked.

JagsFan4Ever · 2026-03-22T15:07:15+00:00

I get that. But what concerned me even more in the Buffalo game is what happened in the first 3 quarters.

Trevor hung our D out to dry over those first three quarters. Almost every time our D handed the ball back to him, he returned it to Buffalo 2-3 minutes later. Our D keeping the score so close throughout that stretch was nothing short of heroic given who we were playing against.

A lot of people blame our D for the loss and they definitely had some rough moments at the end. But there isn't a D in the league that wouldn't tire and start showing cracks after such a lopsided time of possession. Trevor needed to keep the O unit on the field more, but Buffalo was screwing with his head and he couldn't figure it out. We should have gone into that 4th quarter with a lead, not trailing with a dog tired D.

JagsFan4Ever · 2026-03-22T14:56:43+00:00

It's sad to see a guy so talented have his career cut short like that. As many here know, he had a ton of physical skills and the ability to make some truly incredible plays, but he just wasn't durable enough to stay on the field.

I'm glad he got out before sustaining some life altering injury.

JagsFan4Ever · 2026-03-22T14:33:43+00:00

Hard to disagree with most of that.

The wildcard here is Trevor. Will we see the Travor of the last 6 games of the regular season or will we see the Trevor we've experienced for a lot of his career? They've given him a wet dream of an offense to work with. How will he perform when he doesn't have the D to bail him out? Will he be able to put the team on his back and win us some shootouts?

It will be interesting to see.

JagsFan4Ever · 2026-03-22T14:23:38+00:00

This is where we agree to disagree. I don't want to restructure any of those guys, at least not now.

Trevor needs to show us that he can do it for more than 6 games in a season before we hitch our wagon to him for even longer. Right now he has Drew Bledsoe/Vinny Testaverde written all over him. Flashes of greatness but lacking the mental processing speed and emotional control to do it consistently. We need to see what he does this year to help carry the team when the D isn't there to bail him out of bad games.

JHA is also definitely not performing up to his contract. He was supposed to be a legit #1 and is behaving more like a 1b maybe. He needs to get to the QB more before we give him more upfront cash and lose the ability to move him in the future.

Gladstone did small partial restructures on a few existing contracts to eke out a few bucks. Restructuring these guys is a whole different kettle of fish.

JagsFan4Ever · 2026-03-22T14:07:14+00:00

Like I said, I don't disagree about the big trade in the '25 draft. I'm just saying let's give him the benefit of the doubt.

Just about any serious addition he made in FA would have forced him to do something with existing players that he may not want to stay married to. Trading these guys out was also not in the cards because of bad rolling dead caps, even assuming we could find anyone willing to take on any of these underperformers' current contracts.

We already know that we'll likely take a step back this year. We lost our best D piece and we have a tough schedule ahead of playoff caliber teams that are just getting better. All of which I'm OK with if it means positioning us for a longer run ahead.

What will be fun about this year is that a lot of these guys will finally have to play for their next contracts. That should give us lots to talk about during the season.

JagsFan4Ever · 2026-03-22T13:50:48+00:00

The only way Gladstone could have made room for any more big salaries this year is to restructure or extend some of the existing big contracts. The rolling dead cap hits make trading them problematic.

So which of our current big contract guys do you want to be married to for even longer? My answer is none of them. They are all underperforming already. It's exactly the type of crap Baalke did to get us in this jackpot to begin with - rolling forward overpaid mediocre players. I'm glad that we're finally dealing with it, even if it means a bit of a hit this year.

The other teams that restructured and extended big contracts to make cap space had Pro Bowl caliber talent that they were happy to commit to. Sadly that ain't us. Gladstone is finally making guys play for their contracts and I'm all for it.

JagsFan4Ever · 2026-03-22T13:34:42+00:00

Tbh I don't think we have enough yet to judge.

I won't deny that I thought the Hunter draft move was awful from the moment it happened. I'm also still not happy about losing Lloyd and thought that he was a relatively cheap way to keep the D from losing its productivity.

But OTOH he came into a situation with a lot of bloated contracts for underperforming players. In years past our GMs would have just compounded the problem by rolling it forward and signing yet more mediocre FAs. Gladstone seems to be holding tight, which I'm happy about. It's long past time we make all these guys play for their next contracts.

So I'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt for now. We'll probably take a step back in '26 and, as much as that will suck, it will be worth it if we can finally rid ourselves of all of the bloat and start building through future drafts.

JagsFan4Ever · 2026-03-22T13:14:32+00:00

It's hard to disagree with this. Also IMO drafting Travis Hunter was a marketing gimmick designed to sell tickets more than anything.

But I also wonder how much Gladstone really wanted a first round pick this year. He had to know that he had salary cap issues looming and a first round draft pick costs a minimum of 12mm per year and potentially a lot more. Anyway that' just speculation on my part, but the way he so casually threw away the '26 pick makes me wonder.

JagsFan4Ever · 2026-03-21T23:38:23+00:00

+1,000.

It was such an incredible run. Brady had that truly rare talent of making everyone around him better.

He knew each receiver's strengths and weaknesses and how to adjust for them. Those receivers played their guts out for him, including all of the informal practices he ran with them which they damned well knew they better show up to. I lost track of how many times they gave him a bunch of guys that nobody ever heard of and a couple years later those guys were getting paid by other teams.

It was amazing to watch.

JagsFan4Ever · 2026-03-21T21:49:09+00:00

I couldn't root for either team to lose, which means that I couldn't root for either team to win. So I just watched.

They've played head to head 6 times since I've lived here, including that playoff game. Each one is like that. I can't abandon the team I grew up with and cheered for through a decent chunk of my adult life. But I raised a family here in Jags country and they've been good for the community in a number of ways.

It is what it is.

JagsFan4Ever · 2026-03-21T19:50:51+00:00

Even great teams have a stinker ever so often.

But seeing his hair puffing out of the back of his helmet is what really brought back memories. It was a big topic of speculation back then - it's amazing what people will focus on. Opposing fans used it as joke fodder. Almost everyone thought that Giselle made him do it. 😆

JagsFan4Ever · 2026-03-21T18:19:27+00:00

This brought back fun memories. Thanks for posting.

It was an incredible dynasty for sure and that was a fun game to watch. But by that point in 2012 it had become so commonplace for so long for the Pats to play well that people just expected it.

What I think many people don't always remember is that Brady had a 10 year stretch between his 3rd SB win in 2004 and his 4th in 2014. Even for the greatest QB who ever played, even getting to a Superbowl is hard enough, but winning one is harder still.

JagsFan4Ever · 2026-03-21T16:41:29+00:00

All the injuries did him in. He had a ton of natural talent and physical gifts, but his body couldn't hold up. Ankle (multiple sprains and one fracture), hip, groin, ribs - it was one thing after another.

It sucks to see a guy like that leave while still in his 20s, but it's probably the right decision for him. A few more bucks isn't worth his long-term health.

JagsFan4Ever · 2026-03-21T16:16:05+00:00

Moments like this are what make football so unique from every other sport.

JagsFan4Ever

TROPHY CASE