FanHouse MikeWalker

According to ESPN's Chris Mortensen -- please raise red flags when I say, "GO!" -- former Rams wideout Torry Holt is close to signing a contract with the Jacksonville Jaguars. We should note that, according to our boy MortScoop, the deal isn't finalized. Of course it's not. That way when it doesn't get signed, Mort didn't actually make a mistake.

If Mort is correct, which we'll admit is possible, and the Jags complete the signing, this is a big move for them. The current receiving corps is Dennis Northcutt, Mike Walker, Troy Williamson, Nate Hughes and D'Juan Woods.

Jacksonville Jaguars receiver Mike Walker, a 3rd-round draft pick in 2007, impressed his coaching staff at minicamp last season, leading many (including us) to speculate that he might get a starting job with the team. Then he suffered a knee injury in training camp and missed the 2008 season.

Well, contradicting some previous reports, Walker seems to have recovered from that knee injury and is making a big impression in Jaguars' minicamp once again. Jaguars.com editor Vic Ketchman is just one writer impressed with Walker's catching radius.

Draw a stick man. Now draw a circle around his body that represents the zone in which your stick man is capable of catching a football. How high can he go? How low can he go? Can he go as far to his left as he can to his right? Now connect the dots. That's your stick man's catching radius. Walker has a good one.

Ketchman also says, though, that Walker's NFL future depends entirely on his knee. If it remains healthy, Walker has the potential to be a starter, rather than just a great player in minicamps. That would be a good thing for the Jags, who have a strange predilection for signing receivers who can't catch. Maybe that's why they're still struggling to sell tickets.

Jacksonville Jaguars defensive end Paul Spicer is from Indianapolis, so you'd think he would enjoy heading back there for some home-cooked grub once every season. This time, though, he felt the home cookin' was not meant for him.

"We are in Indianapolis. [Bill] Polian give them a little extra in the check. ...

"I felt we did enough to win. We could have done more, but there were some things going on out there that were definitely against us. I don't have to say it. You know what it is. You watched the game. We felt we had a good crew. They're the worst. I bet people at home were wondering what is going on out there. I'm ticked off right now."

Spicer clearly felt that Dallas Clark's fumble was not an incomplete pass, which is what the officials ruled after Tony Dungy challenged the play. The Colts do have a history of using replay to turn turnovers into incompletions, but is that a result of bribery? That's kind of a big accusation.

However, CBS cameras showed Spicer clearly had some ire for Jaguars' receiver Reggie Williams, too. Williams' personal foul penalty in the fourth quarter hurt the team's comeback hopes. Fans in particular are letting Williams have it. Would things be different if rookie Mike Walker hadn't busted up his knee during training camp and ended up on IR? We won't know unless he comes back healthy and makes Williams expendable next year.

Big things are in the plans for rookie receiver Mike Walker, who signed a four-year deal with the Jacksonville Jaguars yesterday. All throughout the Jags' recent minicamp, coaches were suggesting that Walker was good enough to steal a starting job away from either Matt Jones or Reggie Williams. Even Fred Taylor was saying, "If he can play like that, I'll fall in love with him."

If he's really that good, it's possible that Walker's signing may be the most important signing of Jacksonville's entire draft class -- even more important than 1st-round pick Reggie Nelson and 2nd-round pick Justin Durant, who remain unsigned thus far. Byron Leftwich needs weapons. Sure, he can hand off to Taylor and Maurice Jones-Drew, but he needs a deep threat to keep defenses honest. That could be Walker. He had 90 catches at Central Florida last season, and he was coming off a torn ACL. His success could have a huge impact on this offense.

You might want to keep an eye on this guy for your fantasy team. He could be a late-round sleeper. Just sayin'.

Previously at FanHouse:
Walker May Steal Starting Job with Jags
Jaguars New Offense To Be Less Gray and Fuzzy

While fellow FanHouser Ryan Wilson wonders who could possibly replace first-round picks Reggie Williams and Matt Jones at receiver in Jacksonville, most of the Jaguar coaching staff is singing the praises of Mike Walker, the team's third-round pick out of Central Florida. Says Jaguars.com editor Vic Ketchman:

Mike Walker was sensational in Wednesday's practice. He has fantastic body control and soft hands. Walker makes defensive backs look awkward, and that's quite a feat. The only knock on him is that he's a little slow coming off the line, but he appears to have gotten much quicker during OTA's and I don't view him now as a slow-twitch guy. In fact, I think he's starting to look kind of twitchy.

We'll assume twitchy is a good thing here and not a sign that the NFL is giving Walker a bad case of Tourette's Syndrome.

Meanwhile, Dennis Northcutt must have looked far more impressive in camp than he did in Cleveland last year -- being a Brown seem to have that effect on people -- because Jack Del Rio has already penciled Northcutt in as the slot receiver. Del Rio also had good things to say about Ernest Wilford, Charles Sharon and rookie John Broussard. (By the way, in case you're wondering, Sharon beat the rap on that gun charge from last March.)

Could some combination of Walker, Wilford, Sharon and Broussard, who has also looked good in camp, replace both Williams and Jones? It seems unlikely that both first-rounders will start the season on the bench, but the gauntlet's clearly been thrown down for them. I wouldn't be surprised to see one of them get traded during camp.