OWINGS MILLS, Md. — After not receiving a name on the primary two days of the 2024 NFL draft, North Carolina extensive receiver Devontez Walker picked up the cellphone in the course of the fourth spherical and heard the voice of Baltimore Ravens common supervisor Eric DeCosta.
“How would you’re feeling about catching passes from Lamar Jackson?” DeCosta requested.
Walker quickly broke down in tears whereas speaking to DeCosta and continued crying as he spoke with Ravens coach John Harbaugh. For Walker, the feelings had been constructing since he was 4, when he first informed his mom and grandmother that each one he needed to do was play within the NFL.
However the path to the league has been a difficult one for Walker, from a torn ACL to a contentious switch dispute with the NCAA to a nightmarish Senior Bowl efficiency. Now, after bouncing round to 3 schools, Walker is hoping he has discovered a house as the most recent playmaker for the reigning NFL Most Precious Participant.
“Simply listening to that an NFL workforce values your ability set and also you as an individual, it simply makes you’re feeling good, [like] you have executed all the proper issues to get thus far,” Walker stated. “It was only a nice feeling.”
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Walker, the nineteenth extensive receiver taken on this yr’s draft, has the potential to be Jackson’s No. 1 deep downfield goal. After making his debut at North Carolina on Oct. 14 due to an eligibility challenge, he ranked second within the ACC with 656 receiving yards and led the convention with seven landing catches.
Walker’s strengths are his dimension (6-feet-1, 191 kilos), velocity and talent to outleap defenders. In eight video games final season, he totaled 9 receptions on passes thrown a minimum of 20 yards within the air.
Walker has patterned his sport after A.J. Inexperienced, who tormented Baltimore from 2011 to 2020 as a receiver for the Cincinnati Bengals. DeCosta in contrast Walker to Torrey Smith, whose huge performs downfield helped the Ravens to a Tremendous Bowl in 2012. In faculty, Walker and Smith constructed reputations on explosiveness by outrunning cornerbacks on deep routes. However each got here to the NFL with questions on constantly catching the ball.
“[Smith] made huge performs once they counted,” DeCosta stated. “He is a glue man, and I simply assume Tez has plenty of the identical qualities.”
In 4 seasons with Baltimore, Smith totaled 21 catches on passes of a minimum of 30 yards. That is nonetheless greater than double what another Ravens participant has managed over the previous 12 seasons.
The deep passing sport has been a weak level for Jackson and the Ravens. Final season, he linked on seven passes on throws of 30 yards or extra, finishing 26.9% of these makes an attempt (which ranked 18th within the league).
This all may change with Walker, who referred to as it an honor to play with Jackson.
“I have been watching Lamar since he got here out of highschool,” Walker stated. “He is someone that I needed I used to be on his workforce, and now that want is coming true.”
‘Thought my season was executed’
It was solely eight months in the past when Walker had come to phrases with essentially the most unsure level of his soccer profession.
“I believed my season was executed, truthfully,” Walker stated.
Walker was seeking to switch to North Carolina in 2023 — his third college because the begin of his collegiate profession — however the NCAA initially denied quick eligibility as a result of it thought of him a two-time switch. Walker had beforehand been on the NC Central roster in 2020 and Kent State’s roster from 2021 to 2022. He believed he certified to play for North Carolina for just a few causes: He by no means performed for NC Central as a consequence of a COVID-19 canceled season, and he needed to maneuver to Chapel Hill, North Carolina, to be nearer to his ailing grandmother.
North Carolina coach Mack Brown blasted the choice, telling the NCAA “disgrace on you.” The NCAA board of administrators stated committee members obtained threats of violence.
The NCAA ultimately reversed course and granted Walker’s waiver in early October. Now, NCAA athletes can play instantly irrespective of what number of occasions they switch.
“The entire yr, I had no concept that I used to be going to play in any respect,” Walker stated. “I used to be 50-50 on declaring for the draft. [I’d] most likely be [undrafted] or coming again [to North Carolina]; I did not actually know at that time, however that was just about my mindset. I did not assume I used to be going to play in any respect, so I used to be fairly shocked after I bought that decision.”
Walker’s soccer profession has been crammed with surprising turns. Popping out of highschool, Walker insisted on enjoying extensive receiver, despite the fact that most schools needed him to play defensive again. One of many few presents got here from East Tennessee State in 2019, however a big knee damage modified these plans.
To pay for his rehab payments, Walker took a job working at Bojangles, the place he bumped into some NC Central coaches who had seen his sport tape. He was set to play there till the season was canceled in the course of the pandemic.
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Walker ultimately landed at Kent State in 2021, and he recorded 58 catches for 921 yards and 11 touchdowns in the course of the 2022 season. He had seven receptions for 106 yards and a landing towards eventual nationwide champion Georgia, which fueled his want to see how he would stack up at a Energy 5 college like North Carolina.
After numerous waivers and appeals had been denied, Brown ultimately was capable of name Walker into his workplace to present him excellent news. “You are eligible, huge canine!” Brown informed him.
“It is no dangerous blood between me and the NCAA,” Walker stated after being the 113th participant taken on this yr’s draft. “I am simply grateful they made that call, and I used to be capable of do what I needed to do to get thus far.”
Encountering adversity
Walker did not make the most effective first impression in entrance of Ravens officers. He dropped 5 passes at Senior Bowl practices in January, and he was focused eight occasions however didn’t document a catch in the course of the sport.
The Ravens felt higher once they went again and watched sport movie of him making robust catches at North Carolina, whether or not it was pulling in an underthrown go alongside the sideline or extending his arms to make the reception when a security was barreling down on him. It additionally helped Walker’s inventory when he rebounded on the NFL mix in February; he was one among three extensive receivers to supply a sub-4.4 40-yard sprint and a 40-inch vertical soar. The others had been Xavier Worthy and Xavier Legette, who had been each first-round choices.
“The factor that I actually like most about him is that he is encountered some athletic adversity in his life, and he is overcome,” stated David Blackburn, the Ravens’ director of school scouting. “And, he is a very mentally robust child, in addition to bodily robust.”
The Ravens had been stunned that Walker was nonetheless out there within the fourth spherical. If not for the drops on the Senior Bowl, he would have doubtless been a Day 2 choose.
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Walker was among the many standouts at Ravens rookie minicamp final week, and it went past him being huge and quick.
“I used to be impressed with how nicely he moved altering path,” Harbaugh stated. “[He] caught the ball very well. He is off to an ideal begin.”
The Ravens have repeatedly tried to bolster Jackson’s supporting forged. Walker is the tenth extensive receiver drafted by Baltimore because the workforce chosen Jackson within the first spherical in 2018.
Of these 10 drafted receivers, solely two have produced 1,000-yard seasons — Marquise Brown and Zay Flowers — and three presently stay with Baltimore: Flowers, Rashod Bateman and Tylan Wallace. However the Ravens imagine Walker could make a direct affect on a passing sport that ranked twenty first within the NFL final season as a result of he brings what has been lacking in Baltimore.
“He simply has vertical explosiveness [and] the power to get behind protection, take the highest off the protection,” Blackburn stated. “He can put strain on the protection, and he is capable of make some contested catches downfield. I feel that bodes nicely for our offense and our quarterback.”
