Kentucky football Deone Walke
Lexington Herald Leader LogoKentucky football’s Deone Walker is a top NFL draft prospect | Lexington Herald Leader
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Deone Walker is Kentucky football’s best player. He’s a 6-foot-6, 345-pound defensive lineman who boasts athletic ability extremely rare for a 6-6, 345-pound defensive lineman. He is a preseason All-SEC and All-America choice who projects to be a top-five selection in the 2025 NFL draft.
The last time UK possessed a top-five NFL draft selection? That would be 2003 when the New York Jets selected UK defensive lineman Dewayne Robertson at No. 4. Before that, it was 1999 when a quarterback named Tim Couch was the first overall pick of the expansion team that was the Cleveland Browns.
Ah, but Walker still has the 2024 college season to play before he becomes draft eligible. That season starts Saturday night when Southern Miss comes to Kroger Field. Given the schedule and the newcomers on the roster, it’s hard to gauge the expectations for Mark Stoops’ team. That’s not the case with Walker.
“I wanna see what everybody wants to see,” defensive coordinator Brad White said after Thursday’s practice. “I want to see a dominant defensive lineman. I want to see a guy that can absolutely alter a game, change how an offense plans to attack us. I think he’s ready to do that.”
Is Walker ready to do that? The first step in that process is always fall camp, which is transitioning into game prep for Southern Miss.
“Deone had a really good fall camp,” UK defensive line coach Anwar Stewart said. “I think he’s really got his eye set on a huge year, just like our expectations are huge for him. He’s one of the top players in the country. So every day I’ve got to push him at practice to be the best.”
Kentucky defensive lineman Deone Walker, who spoke during SEC Football Media Days in July, is expected to be a first-round NFL draft pick in 2025. Brett Patzke USA TODAY NETWORK
Make no mistake: Walker can be the best. CBS Sports has Walker at No. 7 in its early 2025 draft rankings. The Athletic’s Dane Brugler ranks Walker 17th. Pro Football Focus has Walker at No. 21 but with a chance to climb higher.
“The biggest number 0 jersey you’ll ever see in your life.” PFF draft analyst Dalton Wasserman said on a recent podcast. “Last year at 6-foot-6, playing over 350 last year, I believe he was telling (an interviewer) that he took off around 20 pounds and is in the 330s now. He led the nation in pressures at that size. Led the Power Five with eight sacks. An 85th percentile athlete even at 6-6 and 350. And just like, it makes no sense.”
“He’s getting down, he is,” Stewart said. “I’d like him to be at 335 or 330. That’s our goal. And we’ll get there. That’s going to make him even more violent in his movements, in his striking and pass-rush wise even quicker. You look at that and that’s scary.”
So what’s that like for Stewart, a former UK D-linemen himself who is in his fifth season on Stoops’ staff? How does a position coach approach coaching a player with such ability?
“You’ve just got to humble him,” Stewart said. “I am his coach. I am also his mentor and you’ve just got to get him to really understand that sometimes you just have to shut the noise out and put your head down and grind. He’s done a really good job of that.”
“He’s been dialed in,” White said. “He’s in a really good spot, I’ll tell you that.”
You’ve heard the saying that a good quarterback can make the players around him better. It’s the same for a disruptive defensive lineman, one that can draw double-team blocks.
“If he gets a one-on-one situation and he can dominate that one-on-one situation where we are winning plays, then an offense has to start thinking, ‘How are we going to alter that?’ And they start shifting eyes and attention to that and it’s going to free it up for other guys and it frees up huge flexibility for us in terms of what we can do. He causes all kinds of issues. He can eliminate parts of the field that offenses attack. That’s why it’s so vital for him to play at the level we need him to play at.
“It’s the little things, the details right now that he’s working on to be that elite player,” Stewart said.
The elite player that this Kentucky football team needs Walker to be.
“Bottom line is when you get into your 12 games, you need your elite players to play like elite players,” White said. “If you want to be an elite defense, those guys have to show up. They lead from the front and that’s
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