There's no denying that former Trent Baalke was dreadful during his stint with the Jacksonville Jaguars. More often than not, he failed to hoard enough talent to win games and routinely made decisions that didn't help the Jags in a meaningful way. Having said that, Baalke had a few hits. One of them was giving Walker Little a long-term deal before he hit the open market in 2025.
A second-round pick in 2021, Little came through whenever he was pressed into action. However, it seems like the past regime didn't know what to do with him, as left tackle Cam Robinson got the starting nod over him.
It wasn't until Robinson was traded to the Minnesota Vikings that Little got a chance to seize the starting job. Not long after becoming Trevor Lawrence's blindside protector full-time at the midpoint of 2024, he got a three-year extension worth $45 million.
The Little extension appeared to be an attempt by Baalke to show that the players he drafted were making an impact, but the embattled general manager still got the boot after the 2024 season. Meanwhile, the former Stanford Cardinal is firmly entrenched as the starter at left tackle, making the decision to keep him around great, especially in light of the monster contract fellow offensive tackle Rayshanw Slater got ahead of the 2025 season.
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What kind of extension did Rayshawn Slater got from the Chargers?
Adam Schefter of ESPN reported that with the NFL preseason approaching, the Los Angeles Chargers chose to take care of business, making Rayshawn Slater the highest-paid offensive tackle with a four-year deal worth $144 million that includes $92 million guaranteed.
Under his new deal, Slater will make $28.5 million per year. His annual average slightly edges fellow 2021 draftee Penei Sewell's $28 million per year.
Like Walker Little, Slater was taken in the 2021 NFL Draft. However, he's been more dominant than his Jaguars counterpart, giving up just 11 sacks and a combined 61 total pressures the past four seasons. Moreover, the former Northwester Wildcat popped up at No. 3 in Pro Football Focus' ranking of the top 32 offensive tackles in the NFL after logging a 90.9 overall mark in 2024.
It's fair to say that Slater has been everything the Bolts bargained for when they drafted Slater 13th overall. Now, they're rewarding him accordingly.
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Why the Jaguars got ahead of the curve when they extended Walker Little
Walker Little was a top-10 tackle following his sophomore campaign at Stanford. However, he tore his ACL early in the 2019 season and missed most of the year. Compounding the issue was that he opted out of the 2020 campaign due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Not playing football for nearly two years affected his draft stock, and to nobody's surprise, he slid to the second round in 2021.
Even though Little showed that he was back at full strength as a rookie, the past regime routinely favored Cam Robinson. Then, the coaching staff had him compete with Jawaan Taylor in 2022 for the right tackle job, but he was ultimately relegated to a backup job that year.
When Robinson got slapped with a suspension to start the 2023 season, Little stepped in his place and fared well. However, he returned to the sidelines once Robinson served his suspension. The 2024 campaign was more of the same until Robinson was shipped out of town.
Having claimed the starting job in 2024, Little isn't looking back and is quickly showing that Trent Baalke got it right when he got extended. There was chatter that the fifth-year offensive tackle would need to fend off free-agent acquisition Fred Johnson in the offseason, but that hasn't been the case.
If anything, Little is firmly entrenched at left tackle, and is making the Jags' decision to pay him great in retrospect. Before Rashawn Slater signed his extension, Little ranked 17th among the highest-paid left tackles in the NFL. If you took all offensive tackles, and not only the ones that line up on the left side, the Texas native didn't even crack the top 20.
Granted, Walker Little isn't making chump change, but it's fair to say that the Jaguars saved themselves lots of money by signing him last year. The deal will only look better if he builds off his 2024 season and takes his play to the next level.