Gregory Fisher-Imagn Images
Will it be a “redshirt” year for the massive rookie? Or will he be able to contribute right away?
The
Buffalo Bills tried to improve their defensive line once again this offseason, pouring plenty of resources into both the defensive end and defensive tackle positions. This is far from the first time that general manager Brandon Beane has sought to improve the defensive line, as he has consistently tinkered with the group in search of a combination that can dominate a game.
With respect to Beane and the Bills’ personnel department, they have consistently fallen short of that goal. While other teams — the
Philadelphia Eagles, for one — have been able to create a front four capable of disrupting even the best teams and quarterbacks, the best-laid plans of the Bills and their staff have fallen short of that goal. The effort has been there, but the results have not been what Beane and company have desired.
Will this finally be the front-four combination that pushes the Bills over the hump? In today’s edition of “90 players in 90 days, we discuss a rookie coming off a rather significant injury who has tremendous potential.
Name: Deone Walker
Number: 96
Position: DT
Height/Weight: 6’7”, 331 pounds
Age: 21 (22 on 3/11/2026)
Experience/Draft: R; selected by Buffalo in the fourth round (No. 109 overall) of the 2025
NFL Draft
College: Kentucky
Acquired: Fourth-round draft pick
Financial situation (per Spotrac): Walker signed his four-year rookie contract, a pact worth $5,247,040 overall, on June 13. For the 2025 season, Walker’s cap hit is $1,101,760 and the dead-cap charge Buffalo would carry if they were to release him is $1,047,040.
2024 Recap: After a stellar 2023-2024 season where Walker totaled 55 tackles, 12.5 tackles for loss, and 7.5 sacks, he had a down year as a junior. Walker played in 11 games, notching 37 tackles, five tackles for loss, and 1.5 sacks. It was revealed that he played his junior season with a back injury that limited him throughout the year. The specific injury is called “pars defect,” which is a fracture between two vertebrae in his spine.
Walker did not know about the injury during the season, saying that he really didn’t know what it was until the NFL Scouting Combine. His athletic testing was
average to below average, showing a 25” vertical and a 104” broad jump at the Combine. At Kentucky’s pro day, he ran the forty-yard dash in 5.28 seconds and benched 225 pounds a total of 22 times. His
Relative Athletic Score (RAS) was just 3.74.
Positional outlook: Walker is one of nine defensive tackles on the current 90-man roster. Fellow rookie T.J. Sanders, whom the Bills drafted in Round Two, remains unsigned. DeWayne Carter, DaQuan Jones, Ed Oliver, and Zion Logue return from last season’s club. Casey Rogers, Marcus Harris, and Larry Ogunjobi are the veteran additions to the club.
2025 Offseason: Walker has participated in offseason work in a limited fashion, saying that he’ll be ready for training camp.
2025 Season outlook: Buffalo is taking a risk on Walker bouncing back, both from his back injury and in terms of his production, after a down year last season. For Bills fans of a certain age, this might give flashbacks to Torrell Troup — another defensive tackle drafted who had a preexisting back injury. The Bills and their medical staff are confident that Walker can play this year without restrictions, and if he can do that while also showing the disruptive ability he did as a sophomore at Kentucky, then this will be a huge steal for the Bills.
As it stands, Walker is really the only player who has the size/length profile to slot in as the backup one-tech to DaQuan Jones on the current roster, and given his injury uncertainty combined with Jones’ down year last season, that gives me some pause as to what the exact plan is along the defensive interior. Ogunjobi is suspended for the first six games thanks to a positive PED test, so the plan likely involves playing someone out of position for some snaps at the one-tech while they ensure that Walker is in football shape.
I believe Walker will start the year on the 53-man roster, but there is an outside chance that he’s eased in some way. Once training camp opens, his participation is something to monitor closely.
If he begins camp on a list like the Physically Unable to Perform (PUP) list, the Bills may try to keep him on that list to start the season, giving him four games to continue his strength and conditioning. However, if they deem him ready to go, I imagine it will come with him on a limited snap count of sorts for the early going.
Walker likely slots in as DT4 or DT5 while Ogunjobi is out, and he could slide higher up the depth chart if the Bills release Jones, which is a distinct possibility given his cap number ($9.408 million), the savings that come with releasing him ($5.5 million as a post-June 1 release), and his lack of overall production last year.
This is all a convoluted way of saying that the defensive interior is definitely a positional group in flux, and thanks to plenty of factors, there are bound to be some moving parts. What will Walker’s role be? We may not know until September, and even then, it likely won’t remain the same throughout the whole season.
/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/26024592/Buffalo_1_60625.png)
/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/26024593/Buffalo_2_60625.png)
/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/26027679/Buffalo_1_61125.png)
/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/26029301/_National_3_61125.png)
/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/26027680/_National_2_61125.png)
