No. 15 pick Jalon Walker’s impact muted thus far for Falcons

“His internal makeup right now is the biggest thing that just keeps jumping out on a daily basis. His love for this game, his willingness to prepare, the teammate that he is, the football IQ that he has — like, all these things.”

“Is he where he needs to be or wants to be? No, he’s not. But he’s going to get there because of that internal drive, because of the DNA that he has.”

For the sake of this woebegone franchise’s long-suffering fans, let’s hope so. But it didn’t sound like Ulbrich was describing a player who is going to be making an instant impact in an area where the team desperately needs help, which is what you typically want with a 15th overall pick.

Fans might prefer to hear the thing that keeps jumping out about Walker is his explosiveness off the edge and how offensive tackles can’t stay in front of him.

Ulbrich also said that “the edge play, the pure edge play, like defensive-end play, is still fairly new to him. So he’s learning as we go.”

That would seem to differ from what the Falcons said on draft night, when coach Raheem Morris said Walker played about 30% of the time off the edge at Georgia and general manager Terry Fontenot said “he can play off the edge.”

It is quite early. The Falcons have plans to move him around the defense, not just deploying him at the edge. There are still two more exhibition games and many more practices before the season begins. Walker could very well blow it up in the second preseason game, Friday against Tennessee at Mercedes-Benz Stadium, and we can all have a good laugh over unnecessary hand-wringing.

Maybe absolutely nothing should be read into what Walker has done thus far. But it would be far more reassuring if what no one should derive meaning from was Walker consistently making plays on the practice field.

Walker was in for 19 defensive snaps on Friday against the Detroit Lions, according to the game book. After watching them all again after the game, I counted two where he made a clear impact. One was on a run play when he shed two blocks to help make the tackle, limiting the play to a two-yard gain. (It was his lone entry in the box score, a half tackle.)

The other was his last play of the exhibition, when he set up on the left edge and rushed inside, getting through a gap between the guard and tackle. He didn’t get a sack, but his pressure forced quarterback Kyle Allen up into the pocket, where lineman Brandon Dorlus had a strip-sack to end the half.

Most of the rest of the time, Walker was effectively blocked by Lions offensive tackles Giovanni Manu, a second-year player from Canada who didn’t play a snap last year, and Mason Miller, an undrafted rookie free agent.

I asked Morris on Tuesday about Walker’s lack of impact in the pass rush against the Lions.

He responded that, “You kind of described him in your thoughts and your vision. But really, for us, it was just about getting him out there.”

Morris went on to say that “sometimes they’re put out there in different roles,” noting the play where he made the half tackle and the overall performance of the pass rush (three sacks and two quarterback hits).

And that’s fine, but you would still think that the 15th overall pick would do more against an undrafted rookie who was also playing in his first NFL exhibition game and a second-year player who has yet to play a regular-season snap.

I observed Walker again Tuesday in the joint practice with the Tennessee Titans, an arguably more important exercise than the exhibition game.

As Morris put it, “You get more things to look at, more unscouted looks for your offense, for your defense, for your special teams.”

I don’t know if I watched every 11-on-11 snap Walker took, but I saw about 20. Some were plays he had little chance to impact, like quick-hitting passes. But largely, on pass plays, he failed to generate much pressure, mostly against single blocks against veteran offensive linemen. To these untrained eyes, at least, there were not many instances that gave a picture of the pass-rush menace that he is counted on becoming.

In the final period, when Falcons and Titans first-stringers (offense and defense) faced off, Walker was in with the No. 2 defense with Arnold Ebiketie and fellow rookie James Pearce Jr. playing on the edges with the No. 1 defense.

Walker did have one clear win when he used his quickness to penetrate the tackle-guard gap against Titans tackle John Ojukwu, who has seven NFL starts in his first two seasons.

“There’s been flashes of just, stuff that’s been remarkable out there, and then there’s been rookie bumps and bruises and setbacks, which there are going to be,” Ulbrich said. “Every rookie goes through them regardless of what position you play, how high you get drafted, regardless of any of that stuff.”

Things could turn out quite well for Walker, and probably will. But, early on, it could be going better.