It's been a rough day for most of the Packers, but it's been an especially rough day for Quay Walker.
Walker's been a divisive topic in Green Bay for a while now, but his performance in Week 11's game against the Bears has, weirdly enough, unified Packers fan. They are all now extremely out on him, which is hard to blame them for when you watch plays like D'Andre Swift's lead-taking touchdown run in the 3rd quarter:
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.@DAndreSwift 39 yards to the house 💨
— Chicago Bears (@ChicagoBears) November 17, 2024
📺: #GBvsCHI on FOX pic.twitter.com/Rv0MwIVSaa
What, uh, is Walker doing here? I don't think his assignment was "hit the wrong gap and get suddenly find yourself 10 yards behind the running back" but I'm not a coach, so who knows. The dots never lie, and on this play specifically, Walker's dot is a tough, tough look:
D’Andre Swift hits 19.1 mph on his 39-yard TD run per @NextGenStats. Bears lead 19-14 but fail on the 2pt conversion. pic.twitter.com/G9SNoNxxCU
— Rob Demovsky (@RobDemovsky) November 17, 2024
On top of that all, the fact that he was the guy giving the defense a pep talk midway through the second half of Sunday's game is a fun irony, depending on what your definition of fun is. Bears fans certainly thought it was! Packers fans – at least the ones loudly tweeting at nobody in particular – weren't so stoked.
Packers fans are absolutely fed up with Quay Walker after tough performance vs Bears
If I'm not mistaken, Quay Walker has never been benched.
— Tyler Brooke (@TylerDBrooke) November 17, 2024
He's always been allowed to keep playing when healthy.
Zero accountability for some GHASTLY performances.
Quay Walker is so hilariously bad you have to think the Packers are only keeping him out there as a social experiment
— Ollie Connolly (@OllieConnolly) November 17, 2024
Quay Walker firing up the defense pic.twitter.com/KEg7sLGD84
— Peter Bukowski (@Peter_Bukowski) November 17, 2024
Why did Quay Walker not sack Williams?? He just stopped, no?
— Sam Dekker (@dekker) November 17, 2024
Especially given how Edgerrin Cooper and Eric Wilson have played this season, it is admittedly confusing why Walker continues to get the amount of snaps that he does. Walker's now in Year 3 of putting up, at best, average stats, and the fact that the Packers absolutely refuse to do anything differently is one of the more maddening – not to mention out of character – choices that Matt LaFleur and Jeff Hafley have made this year.
This year, in eight starts, Walker has 46 solo tackles and 1.5 sacks. He's one of the lowest-ranked starters on the Packers' defense – according to Pro Football Focus – and is also their 76th-ranked middle linebacker in the NFL (out of 83). So as much as it pains me to write "loud fans on Twitter are right," it's hard to dispute them this time around.