NFL Draft
1/11/25
6 min read
David Walker 2025 NFL Draft: Scouting Report For Central Arkansas Bears EDGE Defender
Height: 6020 (unofficial)
Weight: 260 (unofficial)
Year: Sixth-Year Senior
Pro Comparison: Mohamed Kamara
Scouting Overview
Central Arkansas Bears edge defender David Walker is a powerful ball of muscle who has terrorized the FCS for the past several seasons as a pass rusher.
One of the best FCS prospects eligible for the 2025 NFL Draft, Walker has illustrated a wide variety of pass rush counters and the linear explosiveness to attack and soften tackles on edge. This is a high-motor defender who illustrates next-level strain and range as a backside pursuit defender in addition to his prowess as a pass rusher.
He’ll need to learn how to maximize his hands as a block deconstructor in the run game or else risk being a rotational presence for the foreseeable future — but his rush IQ offers him a floor to work with through his rookie contract.
2025 NFL Combine Results
TBD
Positives
- Explosive first-step power and ability to play under the pads of tackles in bull rush opportunities
- Wide menu of counters and rush stems force tackles to work vigilantly to vary their sets
- Powerful finisher capable of delivering jarring hits to the quarterback or in pursuit
Negatives
- Lack of anatomical length looms and threatens to neutralize his power and rush counters
- Level of competition question will linger as teams try to decipher where his trait ceiling stops
- Struggles in tight alignments as a run defender to lock and maintain leverage on the edge
Background
Walker is from Stuttgart, AR, and played high school football for Stuttgart HS. There, he was a multi-sport athlete who played football, basketball, and soccer — slipping through the cracks of the recruiting process as a result. Walker failed to receive ratings from any of the prominent recruiting services and eventually enrolled at Southern Arkansas. There, Walker started 19 games in two seasons before transferring to Central Arkansas ahead of the 2022 season.
In three seasons at Central Arkansas, Walker has rolled up the accolades. He finished his first season with 12 sacks and 21 tackles for loss. His 2023 season featured another 8.5 sacks and 18 tackles for loss before returning to double-digit sacks (10.5) in 2024, plus another 23 TFL. He’s a three-time reigning First Team FCS All-American, All-Conference defender, and Defensive Player of the Year. He accepted an invitation to the 2025 Reese’s Senior Bowl to help kickstart his pre-draft process.
Tale Of The Tape
Walker has been a dominating force at the FCS level for several seasons now. He offers an imposing blend of power and violence that many at that level of competition are simply not equipped to handle.
He’s capable of manhandling opposing offensive tackles by simply converting speed to power and washing them all the way back into the lap of the quarterback — creating soft angles and edges to play off of and engage with the quarterback. These reps are frequent and allow him to terrorize opposing passers.
Walker boasts a number of violent rush counters, including the ability to crash inside for those flat-footed trying to set him for speed to power off the edge. Walker illustrates effective rips, swipes, and ghost moves to freeze tackles at first contact. However, the impact of these rush counters at the next level is worth being cautious about.
Walker does not have top-end length, and as such, he’ll need to work well within the strike range of most NFL offensive tackles in order to implement these counters. While Walker possesses the power to play at the NFL level, playing well within the frame of NFL blockers may subject him to added traffic and tighter spaces, limiting his ability to play through the counter and continue his progress to the quarterback.
You do wish he had better lean. He’s so effective with his power moves it hasn’t really caught up to him yet. Still, Walker shows modest flexibility through the lower half and needs every bit of the soft angles he creates to live around the quarterback frequently. That lack of bend, plus his lack of length, minimizes his area of influence as a rusher when occupied with blockers and running the loop.
This is a tough player to leave unaccounted for on the backside. He’s explosive enough to run through traffic and chase down the ball carrier if front-side defenders do their job and set the edge to force runs back into cutback lanes. There’s violence to his finishes, both in the run game and when carrying speed to the quarterback, which leaves little chance for added yardage and boosts the opportunity to jar the football loose.
Walker, as a front-side run defender, often wins with his initial stab to create a knockback and generate space to work around the blocker's path. He lacks the separation and anchor ability to sit down and control gaps before using upper body strength to press a blocker's offer off.
These elements can be mitigated by playing him overtop of tight ends to the formational strength but leave him vulnerable to support blocks that widen him and invite runs off tackle. This is a riddle he’ll have to solve for himself — how to play the point of attack without length is the biggest barrier he’ll face for an every-down role at the NFL level.
Ideal Scheme Fit, Role
Walker projects best as a stand-up rush linebacker at the NFL level. His point-of-attack work and lack of length will always complicate his ability to negotiate the point of attack, so building more outside leverage into his alignments can help ease the pressure he’ll face to stay clean on the edge.
Walker’s pass rush prowess should be given time to develop — although he may need to recalibrate his rush timing due to the leap in competition. He should be considered a developmental prospect and a future rotational pass rusher.
Grade: 73.00/100.00, Fourth Round Value
Big Board Rank: TBD
Position Rank: TBD
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