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“Judging by the last week, week and a half, he’s really come on. He looks like his old self,”Bucs coach Todd Bowles says of linebacker David Walker, who never played in his rookie year (ACL tear). ©Jefferee Woo
David Walker was the darling of the draft for the Bucs a year ago, a presumptive steal in the fourth round from Central Arkansas who quickly demonstrated why he was among the top pass rushers in college football.
But Walker’s first NFL season was over before it started when he tore the ACL in his left knee during training camp.
Walker is back and so is the buzz.
While Rueben Bain Jr. has generated most of the headlines for good reason, the Bucs are going to need more than just the first-round pick from Miami to eclipse the 37 sacks they recorded as a team a year ago, their fewest since 2018.
As a result, coach Todd Bowles ordered a blitz on 35% of the Bucs’ pass rush snaps, the third-highest rate in the NFL.
Bain is expected to start opposite right outside edge rusher Yaya Diaby, who led the Bucs with seven sacks last season. But Diaby is in his final season under contract with Tampa Bay.
Who’s to say that Walker, who recorded 39 sacks and 82.5 tackles for loss during his college career, won’t become the bookend edge rusher opposite Bain for years to come?
“Judging by the last week, week and a half, he’s really come on. He looks like his old self,” Bowles said of Walker. “You can see the athleticism and the speed come back. So give him another couple weeks before we get to training camp, I expect him to be full go and be the guy that we drafted.”
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Walker, who is wearing a sizable brace on his left knee, pronounced himself healthy when mandatory minicamp concluded Wednesday.
“I feel good,” he said. “I’ve just got to trust the movement and trust what the coaches are asking me to do right now.
“I feel like as soon as I got injured, I knew that God didn’t bring me this far just to bring me this far. I was down for a little bit but then I was like, ‘Man, it’s time to attack this rehab. I’ve got to do everything else.’ So the process was really long and I got to learn so much. Just being in the rooms with the guys, being around the team. I’m looking forward to this year.”
Improving the pass rush was the Bucs’ biggest priority this offseason. Only 14.7% of their quarterback pressures resulted in sacks, the third-lowest mark in the league.
Tampa Bay signed Lions free agent Al-Quadin Muhammad, who posted a career-high 11 sacks last season. Underachieving former second-round pick Chris Braswell and veteran Anthony Nelson returned to the rotation.
But Walker may have the biggest upside and has demonstrated his explosiveness off the edge during organized team activities and minicamp.
“I love competition,” he said. “I feel like that’s what’s going to make us better, just competing against each other. The coach is going to play who’s showing the most production. I’m just here to do my part, special teams or whatever, and if I deserve to be in, he’ll put me in.”
Bain has shown pass rush skills beyond his years with active hands and an incredible bend at the top of the rush.
“For me it is his intelligence, his understanding of the game,” Bowles said when asked what impresses him most about the rookie. “There are some things that you cannot teach and he does not learn like a normal rookie and he does some things that a three- or four-year guy can do.”
Diaby figures to benefit from the arrival of Bain after drawing double teams a year ago.
Walker isn’t sure where exactly he fits in the rotation, but he believes it’s up to him to earn the reps.
“For me, it was just staying in my lane,” he said. “Controlling the uncontrollable. I’m going to go out there and when I get in, try to do the best I can do and not look to the left or the right. Just do what I can do and if the coaches see that and see the production, they’re going to play me.”
The edge rush position has bedeviled the Bucs since the departure of players such as Shaquil Barrett and Jason Pierre-Paul, who returned to the club in 2025 after being out of the game for more than two years. Barrett is the last Bucs player to record at least 10 sacks in a season and that was in 2021.
Walker could play a role in helping erase that bleak streak.
“Yeah, just get off. That’s how we’ve talked in the whole D-line room, that the No. 1 thing is four equals one and if we’re all rushing together, nobody can be wrong,” Walker said. “That’s something that I picked up. Just rush. Do your job first and the other things are second.”
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