Buccaneers Get Devastating Injury News on Promising Rookie

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers have already seen their depth at edge rusher take a big hit for the upcoming season.

According to multiple reports, 2025 fourth round pick and promising edge rusher David Walker will miss the season after tearing his ACL at training camp.

“The Bucs suffered their first unfortunate season-ending injury during training camp as the team lost rookie outside linebacker David Walker to a torn ACL,” Pewter Report’s Scott Reynolds wrote on July 28. “Walker suffered a knee injury at the very end of Friday’s practice during a two-minute drill.”

Walker was already looking like he could find a place as a rotational player as a rookie behind starters YaYa Diaby and Haason Reddick.

“#Bucs rookie OLB David Walker suffered a torn ACL during Friday’s practice and will undergo season-ending surgery,” The 33rd Team’s Ari Meirov wrote on his official X account. “The 4th-round pick out of Central Arkansas had been showing a lot of promise early in camp.”

“Just to confirm: Bucs rookie OLB David Walker sustained a torn ACL in his knee in Friday’s practice and will miss the entire season,” Fox Sports Greg Auman wrote on his official X account. “Tough blow to lose their fourth-round pick.”

Walker Called ‘Biggest Steal’ of 2025 NFL Draft

A to Z Sports NFL Editor Evan Winter actually predicted the Buccaneers would take Walker in his mock draft, and did so to the exact spot Walker was taken.

“Had the #Bucs taking David Walker at No. 121 in my final mock draft,” Winter wrote on his official X account on April 26. “They really liked him throughout the process and it’s easy to see why. He could easily become one of the bigger steals of the draft.”

Bleacher Report’s Brent Sobleski also put him on his early list of the NFL’s “Biggest Draft Steals” on June 1 following the start of Organized Team Activities (OTAs).

“The Bucs employ one of the game’s most aggressive defenses,” Sobleski wrote on June 1. “They have two viable edge defenders already on the roster in Haason Reddick and Yaya Diaby. However, Walker has a chance to immediately move up the depth chart if he’s able to take what he’s done during organized team activities into training camp when the pads are on and he faces Tampa’s talented offensive tackles.”

Not Typical Path to NFL Draft Pick

While a typical path for some draft picks in the NIL era is to start their careers at a mid-major then transfer up to a Power Four school once they show even the faintest sign of promise, Walker’s path was different.

That’s because the Stuttgart, Arkansas, native started even lower than a mid-major. Walker, 6-foot-1 and 263 pounds, spent the first 2 seasons of his college career at NCAA Division II Southern Arkansas. Walker, like the rest of NCAA Division II, didn’t even have a season in 2020 because of the pandemic, then had 52 tackles, 19.5 TFL and 8.0 sacks in 2021 before transferring to Central Arkansas.

Walker proved to be just as dominant on the FCS level, where he was a 3-time All-American and finished with 191 tackles and 31.0 sacks over 3 seasons, including winning the Buck Buchanan Award as the nation’s top defensive player in FCS.

Walker was also the Atlantic Sun Defensive Player of the Year in 2022 then the United Athletic Conference Defensive Player of the Year in 2023 and 2024.