Anthony Walker Jr. Named a Free Agent the Browns 'Can't Afford to Lose'

Cleveland Browns have an off-season filled with multiple things they need to take care of coming up. One of those will be figuring out who will be the MIKE linebacker. Pro Football Focus has listed Anthony Walker Jr. as a player the Browns can not afford to lose.

Center Ethan Pocic could be the answer here, as well, but the Browns already have two of the highest-paid guards in the NFL on the interior, so they could continue to cycle through centers and let offensive line coaching savant Bill Callahan work his magic. On defense, linebacker Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah is an exciting young foundational piece, and he got off to a hot start to the 2022 season alongside Walker before the latter went down with a season-ending injury. Cleveland can’t afford to spend much on defense outside of perhaps investing in their interior defensive line, which makes Walker a solid option here coming off his torn quadriceps tendon injury. His 85.9 coverage grade over the past two seasons ranks third among off-ball linebackers, and while he can stand to improve against the run — as is the case with almost the entire Browns defense — those improvements are more likely to come via the aforementioned interior defensive line additions and a change in philosophy under new defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz.

Walker has been the defensive play caller on the field in the past, wearing the green dot on his helmet. Perhaps Schwartz would agree the Browns continue to use Walker in that role to form some continuity.

In 2021, Walker put together 113 tackles despite only playing in 13 games. He was off to a hot start in 2022 where he looked like one of the best linebackers in football through a couple of weeks.

The trust in the healing of Walker and his ability to return to himself will play a role if the Browns look to bring him back. In 2022, the Browns' linebacker corps was hit with the injury bug harder than any unit on the team.