Deone Walker wants to be the best. Here's why the Bills are amazed by the rookie
"Deone is different than anybody else," defensive tackle Jordan Phillips said of rookie Deone Walker. "I'm not taking away from anybody else on the team when I say this, but Deone is playing a grown-man position as a young guy.
At one of the first team meetings to start his 11th NFL season, defensive tackle Jordan Phillips sat next to a 6-foot-7 rookie whose career was just beginning with the Buffalo Bills.
Deone Walker listened attentively. He took detailed notes. His knowledge of coach Sean McDermott's defense was advanced for someone whose first training camp began one month earlier. Phillips was impressed. But, as someone who had played 129 regular-season games in the league, he knew that most rookies at their position take years to make an impact on the field.
Bills defensive tackle Deone Walker has started 12 games as a rookie this season. Harry Scull, Buffalo News
Some never figure it out, at all. This rookie seemed different, though, and in the 14 weeks since their friendship began, Walker has proven to Phillips and the rest of the NFL that he's not a typical first-year player.
"Deone is different than anybody else," Phillips began to explain. "I'm not taking away from anybody else on the team when I say this, but Deone is playing a grown-man position as a young guy. He’s started damn near every game this year, and he goes out there and he makes plays. To see him come in and be as dominant as he is as a rookie, it’s amazing."
Walker's 13th start of his rookie season is expected to happen Sunday, when the Bills (9-4) face the New England Patriots (11-2) at Gillette Stadium. A win prevents Buffalo's bitter rival from celebrating a division title. A loss forces the Bills to use their last three games to fight for the highest possible seed in the AFC.
It is a scenario nobody, Walker included, would have predicted in May, but he has brought stability to a defensive tackle position that lost its best player, Ed Oliver, to a biceps injury in Week 8.
Someone in their position group needed to emerge as a game-changing presence once they learned Oliver's regular season was over. Replacing his production – the 2019 first-round draft pick had 9½ sacks in 2023 – was unlikely, but the drop-off could not be noticeable.
Phillips and DaQuan Jones, the most experienced players in the group, have made an impact. Larry Ogunjobi, who served a six-game suspension to start the season, has also helped, especially against the run. But the Bills' defense would be in dire straits if Walker didn't develop at this rate.
Walker's 21 tackles against the run rank second among rookie defensive tackles behind the Cleveland Browns' Mason Graham, who got taken with the fifth pick of the draft. Walker has totaled 32 tackles, including three sacks and seven tackles for a loss. His 25 run stops are second-most among Bills defensive linemen, and he ranks third in snaps (360) behind Greg Rousseau and Joey Bosa.
"I probably wouldn’t have believed you," he admitted to The Buffalo News. "But it’s not over. I don’t want to look back on it yet. I’d rather look back on it after the season, when it’s all said and done. My focus is 1-0 every week. That’s what we try to be. That’s our goal as a defense, and as a team. I just try to key in on that."
Thirteen defensive tackles, including fellow Bills rookie T.J. Sanders, were drafted before Walker. He fell to the fourth round because of a back injury that limited his impact and production last season at the University of Kentucky. Before the 2024 season, he was viewed as a future first-round pick. The injury was so bothersome during Senior Bowl practices in January that Bills scouts told general manager Brandon Beane that Walker probably shouldn't have been on the field.
It seemed as though Walker could be in line for a redshirt season. The strength and conditioning staff created a thorough program to help him overcome the back injury. He was on a snap count during practices in OTAs and early in training camp. Once the Bills cleared Walker to be full go, his potential began to shine.
Experienced NFL offensive linemen linemen looked like pee-wee players against him during the preseason. Walker shed blocks and tackled unsuspecting running backs in the backfield. Off the field, he studied game video with the same attention to detail as a veteran and followed the workout regimen that allowed him to overcome the injury. On the field, he possessed a self-awareness that is uncommon for first-year players.
Phillips, Jones and Oliver have mentored Walker. They do not hesitate to point out his mistakes, especially Jones, who guided Walker since the day they first met. They've taught him how to spot offensive linemen's tendencies while watching video before a game. Early this season, Walker kept putting himself in precarious situations that made it difficult to make plays and impacted the Bills' defense. He struggled to get off double-team blocks, and he needed to execute the technique taught by the coaches, instead of relying on pure strength the way he did at Kentucky. Improvement required hard work and patience, but he is making more remarkable plays and fewer mistakes.
"I think he’s a mature player," Ogunjobi said. "You get some guys who come out of school, and a lot of times they’re trying to find their way, but his approach is not rookie-like. Once he got through his first couple weeks, as far as training camp and understanding how things worked and they needed him to do ... everything started to pick up for him very quickly. He’s seeing things faster. He’s carved out a role for himself, and he’s maximizing that."
Walker isn't satisfied, and he knows that he's capable of more as an NFL nose tackle, even without the coaches' feedback.
Too often, he is unable to shed his block. Even if the ball-carrier gets to the second level, the Bills' coaches want their linemen to get off their block. Consistency is what's missing, Walker explained, especially in "react attack," a defensive-line technique that focuses on resetting the line of scrimmage by working toward the face of his blocker and attacking off the guard's leverage to explode through his assigned gap.
Defensive tackles for the Bills have not made enough splash plays. Jones has three sacks in 10 games, the production Oliver created in three games, but Phillips, Walker and Ogunjobi have combined for two sacks. Sanders is making an impact after missing five games because of an injury. However, the team has needed him to line up at edge rusher.
The Patriots do not want their exceptional second-year quarterback, Drake Maye, to drop back 40 times Sunday afternoon. They'll want to run the ball early against a Bills' defense that ranks 28th in rushing yards allowed per game.
Walker will be one of the keys to stopping the Patriots and the rest of the Bills' opponents this season. Winning is all that matters to him. He doesn't want to let his teammates down, and he cares deeply about doing his job on game day. His goal isn't to be a good rookie, it's to be the best nose tackle in the NFL. His intensity and dedication in meetings – with Phillips sitting by his side – and during practices will not waver until he accomplishes that goal.
"Anybody can do something once," Walker said. "Can you do it back to back to back to back? That’s the real question. And those who can, get paid the most. I let that drive me. I want to be a great player. Everything in me wants to be a great player. I want to be the best at this. I want to be in those talks. So, I’m coming in here, day in and day out, working toward that goal."