Is Walker Little the sleeper of the 2021 NFL draft?

Coming out of high school Walker Little was one of the highest-rated prospects in the country. After barely seeing the field as a freshman, Little went on to start at left tackle during his sophomore season at Stanford. Heading into the junior year where Little was expected to solidify his draft stock, he tore his ACL and missed all of 2019. Little was expected to come back in 2020, but after a COVID shortened season, he opted out and turned his attention to the 2021 NFL draft.

On one hand, you have a potential high-end prospect, and on the other, it was August of 2019 when he last played competitively. Still, Little is completely healthy now and participated in all drills at the Stanford Pro Day. You can see his size and athleticism below.

Traits that Walker Little translates to the NFL

You can see it from his tests above, but he checks all of the boxes from size and athletic perspective. He has a great first step that comes both backward in pass pro, but downhill as a run blocker as well.

For how inexperienced he was, his ability to function in space and move into the second level was impressive. Beyond that was his kick step backward in pass protection. He was able to gain ground quickly with long legs firing out of his stance.

Beyond that, he was pretty savvy for his age. Check out Little picking up a stunt in the play here. This takes a lot of understanding of the situation around you.

You can take a look at a variety of plays by Little here as well. You can see his ability to move effortlessly, which is rare for players his size. With Little, there is an upside that only a few players have in this draft class.

Questions with Walker Little entering the NFL

The big question is obviously that when he plays in 2021, it will be two years since he last took meaningful snaps. We are projecting a lot based on 2018 video. We see his athleticism is there but has he grown as a player?

The biggest areas he needed to develop were his core strength and ability to anchor. He relies more on his lower body speed than he did on his upper body strength.  Beyond that, with his size, he can lose the leverage battle at times and is not always the low man. Speed rushers can get under him.

NFL Comparison for Walker Little

Using his pro day data we are able to compare this to a list of NFL players in the past 21 years with similar metrics. A few names stand out as hits and miss across the board. However, when combining this with his on-field play, the two best comparisons are Jared Veldheer and Luke Joeckel.

Veldheer is obviously the upside comparison. He fell in the draft due to a small school but stepped on an NFL field day one and became a starter at left tackle. He always had the size and athleticism, but like Little, some questions his anchor and core strength. He developed and put all questions aside. Little has the upside of a player who could fall into round three and start from day one.

However, like Luke Joeckel, he was a prized prospect based on that profile. Joeckel was drafted high off of traits but never developed them into a complete player. Little has all of the traits but has a lot of risk to him, and if he never puts it together, we could see a Joeckel outcome.

How does Walker Little fit Chicago Bears?

Little may be the perfect sleeper candidate for Chicago. They are locked into the Charles Leno contract for one more year but maybe moving on next offseason. Little falling due to his questions could allow the Bears to hit right tackle, or quarterback early, then swing back for their future left tackle.

There would be no demand for Little to start right away and they could see if they really do have a starter for the future. Still, like Eddie Jackson who fell in the draft due to injury, Little has the upside where they cannot deny starting him from the jump.

If the Chicago Bears do not go tackle round one, keep an eye on Walker Little. There is a chance his career turns out better, and he gets drafted later.