Jacksonville Jaguars’ Travon Walker embracing power, confidence ahead of Packers showdown

Jacksonville Jaguars (2-5) defensive lineman Travon Walker was direct, but respectful when asked about the outside noise and criticism levied against him for being a pass rusher who uses power more often than not.

“If they could do it, they would be playing this profession,” Walker said in the locker room Wednesday. “Me, personally… everybody just has to know their value and what they bring to the table. Obviously, that’s part of my game, that’s what got me to this point.”

Walker has made a living using power to win as a pass rusher and run defender. Through college and the pros, that’s been his trademark and he’s continued to excel at the position as he progresses through his third year with the Jaguars. He’s posted 16 sacks in the last 24 games, including 10 sacks last season.

And he’ll have the opportunity to continue that progression against the Green Bay Packers (5-2) this week at EverBank Stadium at 1 p.m. on Sunday.

It’s just Walker staying true to who he is.

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“My confidence is the same as it’s always been. I’ve always been confident in myself. I know my ability. Like, people always criticized me back in my rookie season for always going power. But I mean, if you look at my pass-rush and my sacks and stuff throughout the years, that’s what my [stuff] come off of,” said Walker.

“It’s just me staying true to who I am and not worrying about the outside noise. I know the type of person that I am, and I know what this organization brought me here for. So, I just got to continue to keep my head down and continue to work.”

Travon Walker striving for greatness, taking ‘next-step’ with Jaguars

Walker has six sacks this season, 3.5 more than his counterpart Josh Hines-Allen through seven games and the veteran defensive end wants teams to keep focusing on Walker rather than sliding to his side, he said, “respectfully.”

“I think at the beginning of the season I was getting a lot of looks to my side and Tray [Travon Walker] was taking advantage of his one-on-ones. So, Tray got six sacks and I only got two and a half, so he’s the better end, so let’s start focusing more on him,” Hines-Allen said with a laugh Thursday.

To Hines-Allen’s point, Walker has been getting some double-teams, whether that’s protections sliding his way or a running back or tight end chipping as they get into their route, lately. In two out of the last three games, Walker has been double-teamed 16 times. In his game three-sack game against the Colts, Walker was double-teamed a season-high nine times.

This season, Walker has been double-teamed 39 times while Hines-Allen has seen 34 double teams.

“Keep on sliding his way. Keep on doing it. He deserves it. He’s balling. Keep all that ‘mmph’ on that side,” Allen said with a laugh before offering his thoughts on Walker’s experience with double teams. “Obviously, he’s been playing football for a long time. If you don’t figure it out by now, you’re gonna be out of the league and he’s a guy who doesn’t want to be out of the league.

“He wants to be in the Hall of Fame, he wants to do a lot of things in this league,” Allen continued. “So, in order to achieve those things you have to improve. So you can just see the growth that he’s going to take is committing to excellence. He dived into it.”

Walker says that dealing with double teams is something you adapt to depending on what the other team presents.

“In different weeks they try to chip and nudge me in different ways as far as running backs and tight ends. That’s just another form of recognizing things that they’re trying to do to me and working around that, working for that, working through that during the week,” Walker said when asked how he adapts to what teams throw at him every week.

“The offense is gonna present something that you probably haven’t seen throughout the week to where they have a game plan for you specifically as a player or you specifically as a team, and you just have to adjust to it,” he said. “So it’s just one of those things. You just have to go out there, continuously play and find ways to work around it.”

Walker’s leadership skills were captured when he was mic’d up during the team’s loss to the Chicago Bears in London. the third-year defensive end can be heard on the video telling his teammates to “stay together” amidst a tough loss.

“You can see he’s with his teammates and the coaching and he’s coaching them up. He’s encouraging them and you’re seeing all the things that you want to see out of a guy who is that position, and you’re doing the things that he’s doing, and you’re very encouraged about where he’s going, continues,” Jaguars defensive coordinator Ryan Nielsen said Thursday.

“His play has been really well. He’s doing a lot of really good things and then he adds that piece to it. He’s really picked it up and we’re fired up about that.”

When asked about Walker handling double teams, Nielsen didn’t hold back his enthusiasm noting that he has and is executing a plan.

“It doesn’t matter if he’s got a nudge or a chip to his side. He’s going to rush it like this and so you’ve seen him really grow and take the next step in terms of just the football IQ, in terms of the rushing part of it,” said Nielsen.

“You’ve seen his game rise to another level because he’s got power, the finesse rushes, his hands. He’s on the edge. He can go down the middle. He can do anything and you’re just seeing the progression of him grow and his confidence, I think, is the biggest thing that has grown throughout the season.”

Jaguars feel Packers QB Jordan Love can make ‘every throw’

Packers quarterback Jordan Love is playing well and has kicked it up a notch since returning from an early-season knee injury that knocked him out of two games.

Love has completed 61.5% of his passes for 1,351 yards, 15 touchdowns and eight interceptions. In the last two weeks, Love has completed 70.77% of his passes for 478 yards, seven touchdowns and three picks.

He’ll be a challenge for Jacksonville’s 31st-ranked pass defense.

“He’s a really good football player,” Nielsen said of Love. “He’s handling the position, the offense. He’s in command of everything. He knows where to go with the football.”

The last time a Nielsen-led defense faced Love was Week 2 last season. Love completed just 56% of his passes for 151 yards but tossed three touchdowns in a 25-24 loss against the Atlanta Falcons. Niesen has seen an uptick in Love’s play and Green Bay’s offense since then, but Love has remained a good quarterback.

“That was the thing last year and this year. The guy can make every throw. The offense is just built, obviously, the time that he’s been starting now from early in his career to now. You’re seeing the progression of that. Then with his legs, he can get out of trouble,” Nielsen explained.

“You saw him in the Philly game, he escapes the pocket and he throws the deep ball. The ability to move and throw on the run, it makes him an elite player at the position. It’s going to be a good challenge for sure.”

Jaguars prep for Packers ‘relentless’ defense

The Jaguars can’t go into Sunday with just any plan against Green Bay’s defense. Quarterback Trevor Lawrence wasn’t sacked in the team’s two wins this season but that can’t be the expectation against what offensive coordinator Press Taylor calls a “relentless” Green Bay pass-rush unit.

“It feels like just the defensive line is just a whole new wave every single play. You watch the Houston game, and they just got after [Texans QB C.J. Stroud] with relentless pressure, not even always bringing extra people, just fresh legs, guys flying off the football, attacking. It just jumps off the tape,” Taylor said Thursday.

Stroud was sacked four times and pressured 13 times (44.8% of his dropbacks), according to NextGenStats. Six players posted at least one pressure on Stroud with Packers DE Rashan Gary leading the way with seven.

“They were able to just kind of overwhelm Houston, even if there weren’t free runners. Just a lot of high energy, a lot of really good players, just a wave of pass-rushers rolling through, and everybody firing off the ball,” said Taylor. “It was impressive/not fun to watch, as you’re getting ready for it. But at the same time, you respect good football. They played good football, and they did a great job making life hard for Houston.”

They’re playing good football right now, Taylor added.

Jacksonville allows 2.4 sacks per game, tied for 14th in the league and they have to keep it up on Sunday if they want to win.

Green Bay leads the league in turnovers with 17. They have nine interceptions and eight fumble recoveries through seven games.

Jacksonville on the other hand, is the sixth-best team in giveaways with just seven this season including four fumbles and three interceptions.

Pederson reiterated Wednesday that the team focuses on turnovers weekly.

“We spend Thursday talking to our team offensively about it. Here’s the stats. This is who they are, and this is how they’re creating them. If we show our guys how they’re getting them, I think it paints a brighter picture,” he said.

Green Bay is the first team on a four-game gauntlet the Jaguars will go through the next month of the season. They play the Philadelphia Eagles on the road, Minnesota at home and Detroit on the road in the next three games before their bye week.

Demetrius Harvey is the Jacksonville Jaguars reporter for the Florida Times-Union. You can follow him on X,  formerly known as Twitter, at @Demetrius82.

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This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Jacksonville Jaguars’ Travon Walker ever-confident vs. Packers game