Deone Walker News: Healthy in rookie camp

Walker, who is in rookie camp this week, revealed that he played the 2024 season with a back injury, Alec White and Maddy Glab of the Bills' official site report. "I had a pars defect in my back," Walker said on the night of the 2025 NFL Draft. "I didn't know about it until after the season, really until the combine. We didn't really know what it was, but I feel a 100 percent right now."

Walker, selected in the fourth round, is a giant of a man at 6-foot-7, 331 pounds, and at some point during his college career at Kentucky he was expected to be drafted higher, as he was a lot more productive when healthier in 2023. He'll begin as a rotational defensive lineman among a talented crew that includes Greg Rousseau. Ed Oliver, Joey Bosa and DaQuan Jones, though Walker offers plenty of upside. Perhaps the Bills got themselves a steal now that the back issue is mostly behind him.