Pro Bowl Voters Should Have Paid Closer Attention to Broncos’ Walker
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.

The best decision any team made during April’s NFL draft wasn’t the New Orleans Saints selecting Reggie Bush or the Tennessee Titans taking Vince Young. The single best move on draft day took place when the Denver Broncos traded a second-round pick to the Green Bay Packers for wide receiver Javon Walker.
It didn’t look like a slam-dunk decision at the time: Walker was coming off a serious knee injury that ended his 2005 season after just one game, and some questioned his commitment when he threatened to sit out 2006 in a contract dispute. Eight months later, the Broncos are 9–6 and need only to beat the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday to advance to the playoffs. And Walker, with 65 catches for 1,059 yards, is keeping an otherwise sinking Denver offense afloat.
Denver’s struggles have mostly been at quarterback, where Jake Plummer started the first 11 games of the season. Plummer had by far the worst of his four years in Denver and was benched for Jay Cutler, a rookie the Broncos drafted the same day they traded for Walker. Cutler hasn’t been an improvement. No matter who throws the ball, the Broncos rank near the bottom of the league in most passing categories — except when the passes are thrown to Walker.
Through Cutler’s four games as the starter, his passer rating is 98.1 on passes to Walker and 86.8 on passes to other receivers. The difference in Plummer’s statistical output when throwing to Walker compared with the other Denver receivers is even more striking: Plummer’s passer rating this season was 100.7 to Walker and 58.3 to his other receivers.
Many wide receivers rely on their speed as young players and then become possession receivers as they get older, learning to run more precise routes when they lose a step. The 28-year-old Walker, who looks fully recovered from last year’s knee injury, is at a stage in his career where he has blazing speed and has learned to run routes that allow the quarterback to know exactly where he’ll be. Speed was Walker’s primary asset when the Packers drafted him in the first round out of Florida State in 2002. When Plummer was the quarterback, Walker used that speed to turn short passes into long completions. Now that the strongerarmed Cutler is under center, Walker is using his speed on deep routes like the one he ran for a 39-yard touchdown catch in Denver’s 24–23 win over the Cincinnati Bengals on Sunday. Among players with at least 60 catches, Walker, with a 16.2 yards-per-catch average, is the best in the league.
In college Walker averaged 19.3 yards a catch, and he was a good enough allaround athlete that he spent his summers at Florida State playing minor league baseball with the Florida Marlins organization. He developed into the favorite target of Packers quarterback Brett Favre, catching 89 passes for 1,382 yards, in 2004. But that year he grew angry with what he thought was an unfair contract signed before his rookie year. In 2005, he maintained he was jeopardizing his future by playing — and risking injury — without having a long-term contract, and when he got hurt in the first game of the season, he said he’d never play for Green Bay again.
The Packers’ brass didn’t like that, but it was music to the ears of Denver coach Mike Shanahan. Shanahan knew he needed to add another wide receiver to his roster to help the team cope with the inevitable decline of veteran receiver Rod Smith. A three-time Pro Bowler, Smith is one of the best players in the history of the Broncos franchise, with 844 catches for 11,330 yards in his career. But he doesn’t have much left in his 36-year-old body, as evidenced by his paltry average of just 5.3 yards per pass thrown to him. At this point, Smith is more a liability than an asset.
That’s why Shanahan knew trading for Walker was a necessity, and that trade has paid great dividends. Walker was left off the list when the league announced its Pro Bowl rosters last week, which shows the Pro Bowl voters haven’t been paying close enough attention. Walker is the best wide receiver in football.