The Detroit Lions are 0-6, and there are a lot of different reasons for that.
When teams aren't winning games, it's hard to see the positives or good performances, but Detroit has had a few, including veteran safety Tracy Walker, who's playing some pretty good football to start the year.
Of the safeties who've played in all six games this season, Walker has the third highest grade from Pro Football Focus. He's No. 8 among all safeties who've played in at least two games this year.
Walker is third on the Lions with 30 tackles and he's defended three passes, recorded a sack and has two tackles for loss. He's only been credited with allowing three receptions on nine throws into his coverage area all year, though one of those was a touchdown.
More than anything, Walker is playing consistent football, and it's one of the reasons why we've seen this defense have stretches of good play – like Week 3 vs. Baltimore, Week 5 in Minnesota and for the first half last week against Cincinnati.
It's been a nice bounce-back season for Walker after he admittedly struggled last year with issues both on and off the field.
"I definitely can admit I've improved on and off the field with this coaching staff," Walker said this week. "I'm just trying to build a foundation and let it be set in stone that everybody knows I'm a ball player when I'm out there. For me, I'm just trying to continue to get better each and every day."
Walker is in the final year of his rookie contract, and is slated to become an unrestricted free agent in the offseason, but he said that's the furthest thing from his mind heading into Week 7 with 11 more games to go.
"I don't worry about that," Walker said. "What I have to go out here and do is do my job and continue to put out good film. If they want to keep me here, they know how to reach out. My job is to go out there and execute and do my job and do it to the best of my ability."
Walker has 11 more chances to do that this year and prove to general manager Brad Holmes that he can be a long-term foundational player for this defense moving forward.
