As a rookie last season Jimmy Garoppolo Jersey , Walker slimmed down to about 238 pounds in order to be more of an outside pass rushing threat. This season, he’s back at 280 and playing inside along the defensive line.
He feels this should tip the scales back in his favor. After all, it’s a similar weight from when he flourished at Florida State and became a second-round pick.
”Knowing what weight to play at, what I’m playing – smooth sailing,” Walker said. ”Just do my job and get better every day.”
Walker began slimming down as a contingency plan when linebacker Shane Ray suffered a left wrist injury in training camp last July. Denver’s defense features a 3-4 scheme and it’s predicated on a multitude of pass rushers to assist Von Miller.
The 23-year-old Walker struggled at times with his new assignment and played in just 10 games with one sack (Kansas City’s Patrick Mahomes in the season finale). It was a difficult transition as his role sometimes required him to help out in coverage, which he hadn’t done since his sophomore year in college.
”I had to refresh my brain and my body,” Walker said. ”I wasn’t the best at it. But I can do it.”
Now, he’s on more solid ground. These days, he heads into the defensive line room with the likes of Derek Wolfe (285 pounds), Adam Gotsis (282) Devin Hester Jersey , Shelby Harris (290), Domata Peko (325) and Zach Kerr (334).
”It’s kind of funny, they still try to call me light,” Walker said. ”It’s all fun and games.”
He bulked up over the last few months by eating four to five meals a day. Going back to Florida and dining on his mom’s cooking helped as well.
As it turns out, he’s not a bad cook himself. His specialties?
”Love lobster and shrimp,” he said. ”Love seafood.”
He’s listed as a defensive end on the roster. But ask him what position he plays and he grins.
”Athlete,” he said. ”Just say athlete.”
Among his roles during the workouts is helping rookie pass rusher Bradley Chubb get up to speed. He’s learning plenty from Chubb as well when they play side by side.
”Just how to take advantage of the offensive line. I think we’re undefeated right now,” Walker cracked of the two of them getting the best of their counterparts in offseason practice.
While at Florida State, Walker had 164 tackles, 28 sacks Mike McGlinchey Jersey Youth , eight forced fumbles and two fumble recoveries. That was playing mostly with his ”hand in the ground,” he said.
That wasn’t always the case a season ago when he had seven tackles and spent six games as an inactive.
Feel like the forgotten rusher heading into this season? ”Nah,” he said. ”I’ll wake them up. Trust me.”
His coaches certainly appreciate what he brings to the table.
”He’s improving,” defensive coordinator Joe Woods said. ”Last year, he was a versatile player for us.
”Right now, we said, `Hey, you’re a defensive lineman.’ So, he’s put the weight on. … I got on the scale with him – or watched him get on the scale – he was up to 278, and he’s really making some tremendous improvements.”
Definitely a step in the right direction.
”To me Joe Montana 49ers Jersey , if he’s in the 270s or 280s, that’s good enough for us, to play the defensive end position and to play as an inside rusher,” Woods said.
Defensive line coach Bill Kollar will take it from there.
”He understands what Bill wants,” Broncos coach Vance Joseph said. ”Bill’s obviously a demanding coach, so being with Bill has helped DeMarcus play harder, and obviously being bigger is going to help him play better for us.”
NOTES: OL Garett Bolles plans to play this upcoming season between 300 and 305 pounds. ”Just so I can anchor when I get those bull rushes and things like that,” Bolles said. ”Feel more comfortable there. Feel more explosive and powerful there.” Bolles was in the vicinity of 290-295 in his rookie season.
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Former NBA star Dennis Rodman says he will travel to Singapore ”for the historical summit” between President Donald Trump and North Korea’s Kim Jong Un, even though Trump says he wasn’t invited.
Rodman announced his plans via tweet Friday and thanked the cryptocurrency company PotCoin for sponsoring the trip. The tweet was quickly deleted and later reposted.
Rodman, who is among the few Westerners who have met the North Korean leader http://www.newyorkgiantsteamonline.com/lawrence-taylor-jersey , said he would ”give whatever support is needed” to his ”friends” Trump and Kim.
White House officials have repeatedly said that Rodman would play no official role in the diplomatic negotiations and Trump said Thursday that the basketball legend had not been invited to the June 12 summit.
”I like him,” Trump said of Rodman. ”He’s a nice guy. No, he was not invited.”
Rodman’s tweet announcing the trip included a composite photo of him, Trump and Kim in front of the flags of both nations and the word ”unite.”
In a Fox News interview Thursday, White House Deputy Press Secretary Hogan Gidley said that Rodman is ”great on the court but negotiations should best be left to those who are good at it.”
”President Donald Trump is the best. So we expect he and Kim Jong Un to have an amazing conversation without Dennis Rodman in tow,” Gidley said.
Rodman has called the North Korean leader his ”friend for life.” Rodman first visited North Korea in 2013 with members of the Harlem Globetrotters and has returned several times. He held Kim’s daughter during a visit in 2013.
PotCoin has sponsored Rodman’s travel to North Korea in the past. In 2017, the Basketball Hall of Famer was photographed in North Korea wearing a PotCoin T-shirt and baseball cap. The cryptocurrency company gives marijuana businesses access to banking as an alternative to many financial institutions that will not do business with cannabis companies because marijuana is illegal under U.S. federal law.
Asked again on Friday whether Rodman would possibly be attending the summit, Trump said: ”Dennis was a great rebounder and he wasn’t relatively speaking that tall.”
The meeting next week in Singapore will be the first of its kind between a leader of North Korea and a sitting U.S. president.
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AP writer Jill Colvin in Washington contributed to this story.
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