With First Pick Of 2022 NFL Draft Jacksonville Jaguars Select Travon Walker's Potential

LAS VEGAS -- Travon Walker may be great in the NFL. No, seriously, he might become exactly what the Jacksonville Jaguars hope and expect because they used the first overall selection of the 2022 NFL draft on the Georgia defensive lineman.

But if Walker is what he was at the University of Georgia things are going to get ugly in Jacksonville.

Because Walker was a solid player for the national champion Bulldogs. But he wasn't a star. He wasn't dominant. He was, well, just kind of good.

He had six sacks in 13 games in 2021. And that was his career high because he delivered 9.5 total sacks in three seasons with the Bulldogs.

If he does that over the next three years in Jacksonville, there's going to be a problem for general manager Trent Baalke and coach Doug Pederson who picked him on Thursday.

There is, however, the chance the experts in Jacksonville will get it right. Because Walker was amazing at the NFL combine, with a performance that included, among other things, a 4.51 time in the 40-yard time -- at 272 pounds.

And there is a reason, according to Georgia coach Kirby Smart, that Walker didn't wreck games like Chase Young did at Ohio State or the Bosa brothers did at Ohio State before being drafted near the top of their respective drafts.

"He was an interior rusher on third down," Georgia coach Kirby Smart has said of Walker. "I'm excited to see what he does when he gets to go out there on every third down. So I think his production is going to be a lot more in the NFL."

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