According to The New York Post, Green Bay Packers starting left tackle Rasheed Walker has been charged with second-degree possession of a weapon and criminal possession of a firearm in New York. The gun was registered in Wisconsin, per his attorney. The root issue of the case is that Walker attempted to fly with a pistol and 36 rounds of ammunition in a locked case.
The lawyer claims that Walker, a northeasterner who went to school at Penn State and North Point High School in the Washington, D.C. area, did not realize that he wasn’t allowed to fly with a gun.
“It was in a locked box and he disclosed it to the people at the airport,” Aidala explained.
“He told a person from Delta he was traveling with a firearm. He mistakenly thought because he had a licensed firearm and it was in a locked box that he was able to travel with it. We are confident the case will be dismissed
According to The Post, he will have his day in court on March 19th. Worth noting, Walker is set to be a free agent in 2026, as the final year of his rookie contract was 2025. The NFL free agency “tampering period” will begin on March 9th, and the new league year will begin on March 11th. The unofficial tampering period, the NFL Scouting Combine, will be held from February 23rd to March 2nd.
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Typically, these airport gun charges don’t amount to much punishment for NFL players, but the timing might not be great for Walker’s free agent market. If a team wants to commit $20 million per year to Walker, which is basically the minimum market for second-contract starting tackles at this point, then they might be a little shy to hand him that deal until the legal matter is fully behind him.
This could potentially impact the Packers, as they are more than likely going to lose more in free agency than they gain in 2026, due to their cap situation. In 2025, a $20 million per year deal player would have earned his previous team a 2026 fourth-round compensatory pick if it had lost the free agent, but even falling to the $16 million range would drop that selection to a fifth-round pick. In free agency, money (and more importantly, cap space) dries up fast, which is why many sign deals within the first 24 hours of the new league year. Time matters.
If the Packers lose all their free agents this offseason, they are expected to earn three fifth-round picks (LB Quay Walker, WR Romeo Doubs and QB Malik Willis) and a fourth-round pick for Walker. Teams are capped at four comp picks per class, and Walker was supposed to give Green Bay its best chance to earn higher than a fifth-rounder. Now, those projections rely on how comfortable teams will feel about Walker’s legal situation.
