Expectations might be too low for Jaguars OLB Travon Walker heading into Year 2

As the 2023 NFL regular season approaches, most Jacksonville Jaguars fans find themselves giddy with anticipation and with good reasons. The team turned the corner and finished strong in 2022, and generally positive reports from training camp were punctuated with a good performance against the Dallas Cowboys in Week 1 of the 2023 preseason.

Trevor Lawrence appears to have picked up where he left off. Calvin Ridley looks to be everything fans hoped for and more. Devin Lloyd looks like a real linebacker. Some of the developmental players from last year are progressing. Expectations for the players and team this season are high.

Except for one player, it would seem.

The Jacksonville Jaguars need more from Travon Walker going forward

Many fans are not expecting elite play from Travon Walker

In spite of being arguably the most freakish athlete on the team and having been given a redshirt season to develop, fans still have muted expectations for 2022 number one overall draft pick, Travon Walker. Just take a look at the results from this poll conducted by 1010xl's Mike Dempsey:

While nearly everyone who observes the Jaguars recognizes an improved pass rush as the number one need facing the team in 2023, most fans don't seem to expect that improvement to come from the one player in the best position to provide it. That's concerning.

Perhaps Jaguars fans have gotten used to mediocre production from high draft picks. Perhaps they simply observed Walker's often predictable, uninspiring pass rush last season and are trying to be realistic.

But, an eight-or-so sack count for the No. 1 overall pick in his second season is not enough. That 36.2 percent should be next to "nine or more." Half the respondents think he's going to have fewer than seven sacks. There should be that many expecting double-digits.

Some fans do have optimism. Take this poll from longtime Jacksonville media member Dan Hicken:

But, take a closer look. While 40 percent of fans responding are expecting a "big year" (however that's defined) from Walker, an unsettling 36 percent of fans think it "will be good not great." There are too many fans expecting "just ok" or worse from Travon Walker this year.

Trevor Walker, as the No. 1 overall pick should be expected to be elite

When Travon Walker was taken number one overall by Trent Baalke and the Jacksonville Jaguars in 2022, the team made it clear fans should expect a bit of a project.

That seemed a bit odd given that he was taken in a draft rich with numerous elite edge rushers, most notably defensive end Aidan Hutchinson. Number one overall draft picks are nearly universally expected to step in and produce immediately.

And yet, the Jacksonville fans, some of the most loyal in the league, accepted the idea of developing a player with elite traits in the hopes that ultimately he would prove to be the superior player amongst a pool of uber-talented edge rushers. That was already a courtesy most fan bases would not be willing to offer.

Remarkably, it seems like many fans are willing to extend his grace period yet another season and that may be a bridge too far. He's already on borrowed time and the team needs their largest draft investment not named Trevor Lawrence to come through at their greatest position of need.

Coaches and others are expecting more from Travor Walker than the fans

Fan expectations are one thing. But, that has nothing to do with what is going on inside the building at the Miller Electric Center.

Thankfully, as this article published on Jacksonville's local News4Jax website details, Walker's expectations for himself are far higher than seven or eight sacks:

"My main accolade is the gold jacket. I feel like if I get the gold jacket, the Super Bowl, all of that’ll come."

Travon Walker

For those unfamiliar with the term, gold jacket means Walker has his sights set on being enshrined into the Hall-of-Fame. Coming off a season in which he registered just 3.5 sacks, that seems like a pretty high bar. But there's more, he also intends to break defensive end Calais Campbell's team record of 14.5 sacks.

Setting team records and becoming one of the best defenders ever are pretty lofty goals and that's exactly how Travon Walker should be thinking.

His coaches and teammates are also expecting big things from the former Georgia Bulldog.

The proof is in the pudding for Jaguars OLB Travon Walker

Public votes of confidence from coaches and teammates aside, there is more good news: actual evidence of development for Walker's pass rush:

That's a nice play by Walker even though he doesn't get all the way home. He uses a nice little inside dip to split the tackle and guard and affects the play.

Unfortunately, this was his only impact play. The rest of his snaps were a collection of patty-cake games with the tackle and half-hearted efforts at chasing down plays from the back side.

If Walker wants to wear a gold jacket one day, his effort and production must have coaches, teammates, fans, and himself expecting the effort seen above on every play, not just once in a while.

Travon Walker and Aidan Hutchinson will forever be linked

Fair or not, Travon Walker will be compared with Aidan Hutchinson for his entire career. Hutchinson, taken one pick after Walker in the 2022 Draft, was known to be a much more polished product coming out of college.

There are still many Jaguars fans who would trade Walker for Hutchinson today, and that's understandable given the current evidence.

If Walker is going to change those opinions, he will have to start providing evidence that he is the better of the two players. Fortunately for him, he had an opportunity to do that in joint practice.

It helped that Jaguars rookie tackle Anton Harrison had a nice showing against Hutchinson in the same practice. Granted it's just two reps out of many, and in a practice rather than a game. It's likely Detroit fans are still confident in their guy.

The rush against Dallas and the practice footage against Detroit are not evidence that Walker is better than Hutchinson today.

Rather, they are small indicators that hopefully will add up to a future argument But, that future has to start soon. By the end of this year, Jaguars fans should be making the case that the best EDGE defender from the 2022 draft is in Jacksonville.

Better than Hutchinson, better than Kayvon Thibodeaux, Jermaine Johnson, and just about everyone else who gets after the quarterback in the NFL. That is where the expectation should be set for Jacksonville's number one overall draft pick.

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