Packers’ Quay Walker ‘Wanted to Retaliate’ in Fight vs. Steelers Star
Credit Packers linebacker Quay Walker. When he was a rookie first-round pick out of Georgia in 2022, he struggled badly to keep his emotions in check. Playing with intensity of focus was one of his strong suits, but Walker could not quite figure out how to turn off the intensity when he came off the field.
He was ejected from a game in October of his rookie year, for shoving a Bills practice-squad player. Then he was again ejected for pushing a Lions team doctor in the season finale, as the doctor was attempting to help an injured player. Two ejections in one year left Walker with a reputation as a hothead.
On Sunday, in the 35-25 win over the Steelers on “Sunday Night Football,” Walker could have let that old reputation bubble up again.
“Today, I had a test,” he said after the game.
Quay Walker: ‘I Matured a Whole Lot’
Walker has worked to keep himself in check as his career has gone on, though. And on Sunday night in Pittsburgh, that work was put to the test during multiple scrapes with the frustrated home team. At one point in the fourth quarter, Walker had his facemask grabbed by star receiver DK Metcalf.
Rather than shove Metcalf, though, Walker just held his ground and let the penalty flag fly in–a 15-yard unnecessary roughness on Metcalf, the Steelers’ second unnecessary roughness penalty in a three-minute span. Those two calls helped to squelch any chance for a fourth-quarter comeback.
That could have been different if Walker had fought back.
“DK grabbed my facemask. I wanted to retaliate,” Walker said on “The Speakeasy” podcast. “Everything just reflected to my rookie year when I got ejected and how I felt in that situation, how long I took to give myself grace from that last time I got kicked out. I was just like, I can’t do that no more. I matured a whole lot.
“It took everything in me. But I am happy I did what I did, I am happy I went about it that way. Grown man. I am maturing so I am happy for myself.”
Packers Benefit From Quay Walker Change
For Walker, it has been part of a very conscious process to both maintain his intensity and not hurt his team by pushing things too far.
“It’s so hard, man, because I gotta really tell myself when to come down,” Walker said. “Because when I am on the field, I really like, I am a whole different person, I go into a whole different mode. You know how it is, we run into grown men for an hour straight. I am a whole different person, it takes me a while to cool down.
“Even in between plays, I still be on that. Now, I tell myself to just chill, I go back to the sideline, meditate just to calm myself down.”
Packers Will Have Free-Agent Decision
So far so good for Walker, who is in the midst of a particularly important year. The Packers, of course, turned down the fifth-year option they held on Walker heading into the season, feeling that the price (almost $15 million) was too hefty. They could work out a lower-priced extension for Walker before he hits free agency in March.
It helps his cause that he is having his best season. Walker has been healthy, with four passes defended and 1.5 sacks in seven games.
Browns Predicted to Add Undefeated Star to Replace Dillon Gabriel
It would be just the Browns‘ luck, wouldn’t it, to have two first-round picks (one likely a Top 5 pick) in a 2026 NFL draft that has depth and quality at a number of positions … but not so much at quarterback. It’s a legacy that stretches back more than three decades, the Browns’ inability to draft and develop a top-line quarterback, and there is real fear that the 2026 draft might not be the one to help them much.
Still, after five games of Dillon Gabriel, and unless there is a late-season revelation on Shedeur Sanders as a future star, the Browns will need to pick a quarterback in six months. The pool might be slim, but at Cleveland.com, they’ve got a path for the Browns to get a guy who has shown some toughness and grit–and who happens to be 6-foot-5, a nice contrast to the diminutive Gabriel.
The quarterback: Fernando Mendoza of undefeated Indiana.
Browns Could Land Top 2026 QB
Now, it should be noted that the mock draft does feature a big break for the Browns, in that the team lands with the fourth pick and none of the Top 3 pick a quarterback. That’s plausible, since two of the worst teams in the league–the Titans and Giants–appear to have QB1s in place. A third, the Saints, could decide they need to give last year’s second-rounder, Tyler Shough, a shot.
So the Browns get the pick of the QB litter.
Writes Tim Bielik of Cleveland.com: “Mendoza right now is QB1 and his game-winning drive at Penn State on Saturday only solidified that standing. He has just about everything a quarterback needs except for an elite deep ball. Mendoza has taken the next step as a quarterback under Curt Cignetti and looks like the type of QB who could turn a team like the Browns back around quickly.”
Fernando Mendoza Early QB 1 Leader
There is some debate on who is the top quarterback in this draft, with Ty Simpson of Alabama getting some of that attention, and Oregon’s Dante Moore also in the mix. And the one worrying aspect of it all is that none of those three were considered sure-fire first-rounders heading into this season. If only Arch manning had lived up to his hype, this might be an easy call.
Still, the Browns are unmistakably in the market for a quarterback, and Mendoza shines as a sort of anti-Gabriel–big and strong, poised in the pocket, while being both accurate and willing to take risks down the field. According to Pro Football Focus, Mendoza is not all that bad with the deep passes, completing 18 of his 33 passes of 20 yards or more this year.
(Worth noting: Gabriel is 2-for-8 on such passes with the Browns thus far.)
Mendoza’s completion percentage (71.3%) is excellent, and he has racked up 2,342 yards on the season in 10 games. The only games in which he did not top 200 yards passing were blowouts against Old Dominion and UCLA.
Browns Could Also Add a Top WR With Fernando Mendoza
The good news for the Browns on their second first-rounder is that, should the team turn to more offensive help with that pick, there is a deep pool of first-round-worthy receivers on hand, and Cleveland should do what it can to pluck one of them.
The Cleveland.com mock has them landing USC’s Makai Lemon, who has been one of the most productive pass-catchers in college football. But Jordyn Tyson (Arizona State), Carnell Tate (Ohio State), Chris Bell (Louisville), and Denzel Boston (Washington) are also worth watching.
