Deone Walker wrecked NFL’s highest-paid center in Bills win over Raiders

Deone Walker is probably going to be the antagonist in Tyler Linderbaum’s nightmares for a while.

The Raiders made Linderbaum the NFL’s highest-paid center this offseason, inking him to a three-year, $81 million deal with $60M guaranteed at signing, and the Bills disruptive nose tackle demolished him for a large portion of Buffalo’s 33-30 win over Las Vegas in Week 6.

Now, Walker was only credited with one pressure on 30 pass-rush snaps, but he “won” his one-on-one reps with Linderbaum far more frequently than that, and he wreaked havoc against the Raiders run game, a ground attack that only averaged 3.3 yards per rush.

With this film session, let’s start there, and I’ll begin with the most emphatic display of Walker’s dominance in this game:

What’s the appropriate response to that rep? Linderbaum had become an elite-level center during his time in Baltimore, before he signed the monster free-agent deal in Las Vegas. He routinely won with a tremendous combination of balance, agility, and power.

Remember too, Linderbaum was an All-State wrestler in high school who famously pinned Tristan Wirfs back in a 2017 match between the future NFL offensive linemen.

Walker tossed the 6’2″, 305-pound Linderbaum aside like he was a practice-squad long-snapper on that rep then wrapped up Mike Washington for a short gain. All-Pro level highlight there.

At Iowa and early in his career with the Ravens, Linderbaum was a menace in the run game because of how rapidly he erupted out of his stance when either climbing the second level or getting to reach blocks across a gap. He regularly carried out those duties with ease. The movement element to his game is why Linderbaum was a first-round pick and a big reason why he signed such a lucrative deal in March.

Linderbaum’s speciality was irrelevant here against Walker:

And that is the exact type of block on which the smaller but more explosive Linderbaum should get the better of Walker. The clear win for Buffalo’s second-year defensive tackle wasn’t a fluke.

He had managed an even cleaner victory later in the game on a similar blocking concept that amounted to a tackle for loss:

I’m telling you — 6’6″ and 345 should not be physically capable of shooting a gap like that on Linderbaum.No way, no how. But Walker did.

The majority of his pass-rushing opportunities featured double teams. Yet when Walker was given a chance to rush man-on-man, he either freed himself from the block or caved the pocket in front of Kirk Cousins.

This was the Raiders first offensive play of the game. Walker initially bull rushed Linderbaum, but take note of how he countered off it late it get a hand up near the throwing motion of Cousins:

That’s a reasonably high-caliber rep for a defensive tackle who probably wasn’t credited with a pressure on the play. He has regularly still impacted the pocket even when he’s been technically blocked.

And check this rep from Walker going full Swim Diesel on Linderbaum to force a hurried throw and incompletion from the Raiders veteran quarterback:

Through six games — before Monday Night Football — there are only three defensive tackles with more pressures than Walker’s 22. He’s been a stalwart against the run too.

At 22 years old, while playing 70.9% of Buffalo’s defensive snaps, Walker is playing like one of the best interior defensive linemen in football.

His performance against the league’s highest-paid center should remind everyone of that.