Colts linebacker Anthony Walker carries himself like a man beyond his years

Show Caption Hide Caption Chopping Wood - Another divisional game vs. Titans Sunday The Colts play another divisional game Sunday versus the Titans. Here's the latest 'Chopping Wood' podcast with insiders Zak Keefer and Joel Erickson.

INDIANAPOLIS – It’s a Monday. The off day for the Colts. A chance to rest, to recuperate from Sunday’s bone-rattling collisions, to take a little break from the relentless grind of the NFL season.

Anthony Walker is poring over the film of Indianapolis’ next opponent.

He’s looking for hints. A change in a running back’s depth behind the line of scrimmage, an offensive lineman’s lean on plays he’s going to pull, an offense’s tendency to run a particular play out of the same formation over and over again.

Walker finds something, jots it down in his notebook, goes back to the tape. By Tuesday night, he’ll have taken all of the information he’s gleaned, compressed it into a half a page of notes and sent it out to the rest of the Colts linebackers.

Support local journalism: Get great, in-depth Colts coverage for a great price

Insider: A year later, life is good for Andrew Luck

When the linebackers arrive on Wednesday, they get their first look at the game plan the coaches have spent the first two days of the week creating, but they already have one plan memorized.

Walker’s plan.

“I want them to see the same thing that I’m seeing,” Walker said. “As the Mike (middle) linebacker, you’re the quarterback of the defense. You have to see a little bit more.”

***

Walker is a bit of an old soul.

A player who already knows he wants to be a general manager. A first-time starter calling the shots for the entire defense. A mentor to a man two weeks older than him.

“When I first got here, I thought he was maybe year four, year five,” rookie linebacker Darius Leonard said. “I come to find out it’s only his second year.”

Leonard, born on July 27 in 1995, is a ready-made highlight and a turnover-producing machine in the mix for Defensive Rookie of the Year and a Pro Bowl spot. Walker, who came into the world on Aug. 8 of the same year, is quietly turning in a rock-solid performance in his first season as a starter, but it’s hard to draw attention when your running mate is a supernova.

But Leonard might not be Leonard without Walker.

Ask Leonard.

In today’s NFL, defenses play with five or more defensive backs on the field three-quarters of the time. Even in a 4-3 scheme like the Colts run, only two linebackers are on the field the majority of the time.

For the Colts, the pairing is Walker at the Mike, Leonard at the Will.

From the moment he arrived in Indianapolis, Walker took him under his wing. Never mind that the former fifth-round pick needed to establish himself in the new defense after making just two starts as a rookie. Walker had already absorbed new coordinator Matt Eberflus’ scheme — there’s that preparation again — and he helped put Leonard on an accelerated learning curve, teaching him the ins and outs of the Will, or weak-side, position. Leonard has been a playmaker from the start because his teammate eliminated nearly all of the uncertainty a rookie faces.

On game day, Walker makes all the calls, sees all the checks and audibles, usually before Leonard picks it up. All Leonard has to do is go get the football.

“Eighty percent of the reason I am who I am in this defense is because of Walk,” Leonard said.

***

Walker learned how a linebacker carries himself at Northwestern.

His head coach, Pat Fitzgerald, was an all-time great as a college linebacker, the only man in history to win the Nagurski Award twice. Walker redshirted in his first year with the Wildcats, then jumped into the starting lineup as a redshirt freshman.

A college team’s work week is a little different; a lot of teams use Sundays as key preparation days because of the lack of classes. For that reason, Walker and the Wildcats linebackers would watch film together, sharing the kinds of notes Walker now scribbles down on Mondays.

He spent his voluntary time learning from Fitzgerald.

“We watched film every day after classes and practice,” Walker said. “That was my extra work at Northwestern.”

Fitzgerald’s influence helped produce a linebacker who approached the game like a professional right from the start, even if he didn’t always get to show it in his first year with the Colts. A hamstring injury Walker suffered in the season opener robbed him of six weeks of development, and by the time he was healthy, he had to work his way back into the lineup. Playing time didn’t really come until the final three weeks of the season.

Walker made 19 of his 22 tackles as a rookie in those final three games, but he never felt like he had a chance to get on track. A middle linebacker by trade, Walker made his two starts at the end of the season out of position on the weak side.

“I wasn’t really a part of the defense last year, as far as scheme and system-wise,” Walker said.

A groin injury in training camp threatened to rob Walker of his chance at a starting spot this season.

Forced to watch from the sidelines, Walker missed the entire preseason while he rehabilitated the injury, but the coaches saw a player who found a way to keep growing in the defense even though he wasn’t hurt.

“He’s just a pro every week,” Colts coach Frank Reich said. “The couple of times he has been a little bit nicked up and he couldn’t practice, just totally engaged, so when he has to step back in there, he’s ready to go.”

Understanding the defense, making the calls and teaching the scheme to other players is one thing.

A linebacker still has to physically make plays, and in his first season as a starter, Walker is getting better. Two weeks ago, Walker racked up 10 tackles and a tackle-for-loss against Jacksonville, prompting Eberflus to call it the best game his middle linebacker has played up to this point.

“He tackled well,” Eberflus said. “He was downhill in the running game and I thought his coverage was pretty good in terms of him setting up, breaking and doing the things we ask him to do in coverage.”

Walker has 67 tackles, seven tackles-for-loss, a sack and an interception this season. As good as Leonard has been statistically, Walker’s performance has been plenty good enough for the Colts to like what they’ve got at linebacker for a long time.

***

Walker’s notes, the half a page he painstakingly writes out each Monday and Tuesday, give the Colts an obvious advantage in preparation.

“When he sends his notes, there’s a lot of things that I didn’t see,” Leonard said. “The next time I watch film, I can pick up on it very quickly and just go from there.”

But the notes also establish Walker as a leader. He is far from the only player in the NFL with a penchant for film study. Nearly all of the NFL’s best quarterbacks are renowned for their preparation; offensive tackles and pass rushers spend hours obsessively trying to find flaws in each other’s games; cornerbacks look for an edge against wide receivers.

That’s exactly why what Walker’s notes have such an impact.

“Leadership, a lot of the time, is what your teammates see from you off the field,” veteran Colts linebacker Najee Goode said.

A middle linebacker, like a quarterback on the other side of the ball, is expected to be the leader, to make the right calls, to see things happening before the ball is snapped and find a counter to whatever the offense is doing.

Walker understands that responsibility. Feels it right down to his bones.

“It’s your artwork out there,” Walker said. “You want the picture to be pretty when you’re the man in the middle.”

And a true artist paints his masterpiece by putting in the work.

Indianapolis Colts vs. Miami Dolphins

4:35 p.m. at Lucas Oil Stadium; CBS.