Colts Linebacker Anthony Walker Clears Concussion Protocol

It looks like there is some good news for second year linebacker Anthony Walker over the break leading up to training camp: he is clear of the concussion protocol.

While you generally would expect a player to be able to clear concussion protocol given as much time as there is before training camp, concussions don’t always behave the way we expect.

You might remember back in 2015, former Colts running back Tyler Varga got a concussion that lasted four months. Obviously that isn’t the norm, but it can happen. Anthony Walker won’t have to be sidelined for nearly that long, which is big for him, because this training camp is going to be really critical.

He missed out on much of his rookie season with a lingering hamstring injury that never saw him able to make a serious impact. As a 5^th round pick that was somewhat expected, but the linebackers who were starting were practically begging to be overtaken. Injuries cost him the opportunity to take advantage of that. Toward the end of the season, we got to see him begin to show signs of improvement, which was a source of encouragement going into the offseason.

However, the draft saw the Colts select 3 linebackers. They also signed Najee Goode and brought in UDFA Skai Moore. Walker has been running with the first team as the MIKE linebacker during much of OTAs and mini-camp, but he’ll need to be at the top of his game and stay healthy if he wants to stay there with such an influx of competition. It sounds like he will at least be able to start off camp with a chance to do that.

Training camp begins on July 25^th.