GREEN BAY — As Rasheed Walker cleaned out his Lambeau Field locker and headed for the door a couple days after the Green Bay Packers’ season-ending playoff loss to the Chicago Bears back in January, he knew he might be leaving the stadium for the final time. 

“I don’t know. I’m just going to stay the course and do whatever I can do to put myself in good position,” said Walker, who’d started 52 games (including playoffs) at left tackle after entering the league as a 2022 seventh-round draft pick. “I’d love to be back. I love Green Bay. Love the team, love the people here, and I feel we have a chance to do something special in the future.

“It’s just been a good time for me, and I’m just ready for whatever’s happening next.”

The Packers, of course, had other plans.

Having selected Jordan Morgan with their first-round pick in the 2024 NFL Draft, they had Walker’s replacement at the ready. Their hope, without a first-round pick in this year’s or next year’s draft, was that Walker would get a big-money free-agent deal from some other left tackle-needy team — which, in turn, would give them a compensatory pick in the 2027 NFL Draft, perhaps even a third-rounder.

So while Walker was surely disappointed that it took him five days to find a new NFL home — and he had to settle for a one-year prove-it deal with the Carolina Panthers reportedly worth up to $10 million — he wasn’t the only one who was feel ling let down by what the free-agent market bore for him.

Packers general manager Brian Gutekunst was undoubtedly bummed, too.

Heading into free agency, the feeling was that Walker would land a multi-year deal that could average between $20 million and $25 million per year — the kind of contract that would have likely gotten the Packers a third-round compensatory pick based on the NFL’s formula for awarding such picks.

Instead, his deal with the Panthers is likely to net a sixth-round pick, although Walker could play a vital role for Carolina this season, and the formula does also take into account how many snaps the player plays with his new team.

Walker figures to be the Panthers’ starting left tackle in 2026, after their franchise left tackle, Ikem Ekwonu, suffered a torn patellar tendon in his right knee on the second series of their NFC wild card playoff loss to the Los Angeles Rams.

Ex-Packers lineman Yosh Nijman might’ve been Ekwonu’s replacement, but he announced his retirement from the NFL on social media on Wednesday night. Nijman was a free agent after playing five seasons with the Packers and two with the Panthers.

If Walker plays well for the Panthers, he would potentially re-enter the free-agent market with a chance to command a bigger contract than the one-year deal he’s settling for in Carolina.

The Packers, meanwhile, will move forward with Morgan, whom Gutekunst believed could have been the team’s left tackle last season.

“I thought he was ready,” Gutekunst said at the NFL scouting combine last month. “I thought he had a really good training camp. I thought he was ready to go. And I think if we were to need him at any point in the season to play left tackle, we were very confident he could go there and play winning football.

“So I think certainly if Rasheed’s not here — even if Rasheed is here — I think [Morgan] would have a pretty good crack at that.”

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