With organized team activities taking place around the NFL, many rookies are getting their first opportunities to work with the club’s veterans. At Titans camp, first year players will soon learn Delanie Walker won’t be the quickest to welcome them with open arms.
As is the case across sports, rookies generally have to earn their way into the good graces of the veterans. For Walker, that process doesn’t start until they make the team.
“You’ve got to earn the right,” Walker told the Tennesseean. “These rookies come in nowadays, stuff’s given to them. I’m not going to be your friend until you make the team.”
Among the rookies virtually guaranteed to make the Titans roster are early round picks Jack Conklin, Kevin Dodd, Austin Johnson, and Derrick Henry. The latter has already caught the eye of Walker.
“I’ve been sizing up Henry, man, and he’s a big dude,” Walker said. “I have to put him in his place early. But he’s a good dude. I’m just messing with him, giving him a hard time because I feel like he’s going to be a monster for this team. I usually don’t talk to the rookies until they make the team. But he’s one of the guys that I think can help this team out.”
After spending the first seven years of his NFL career with the Niners, Walker is getting ready to enter his fourth in Tennessee. He set career-highs in 2015 with 94 receptions and 1,088 receiving yards while tying his career-best with six receiving touchdowns. Walker also earned his first trip to the Pro Bowl.
Walker was selected in the sixth round of the 2006 NFL Draft so he certainly knows about having to earn his stripes in the league. Now he’s making sure the latest crop of young players do the same, atleast in his eyes.
H/T Eye On Football
