{"id":727158,"date":"2026-02-03T21:18:13","date_gmt":"2026-02-03T21:18:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/727158\/"},"modified":"2026-02-03T21:18:13","modified_gmt":"2026-02-03T21:18:13","slug":"will-jaguars-bring-back-ol-walker-little-for-2026-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/727158\/","title":{"rendered":"Will Jaguars bring back OL Walker Little for 2026 season?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Feb. 3, 2026, 1:17 p.m. ET<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">What does the future hold for <a href=\"\/\" data-t-l=\":b|e|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\">Jacksonville Jaguars&#8217;<\/a> offensive lineman Walker Little?<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">This is a question because of how last season ended. With the emergence of Cole Van Lanen, he would take Little&#8217;s starting role at left tackle. This left Little to come off the bench and even play some guard when the <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/sportsdata.usatoday.com\/football\/nfl\/teams\/jacksonville-jaguars\/365\" data-autotag=\"0e187629-debe-49e8-9e02-83bd36ad3fcc\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" data-t-l=\":b|e|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\">Jaguars<\/a> were navigating injuries.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">With Van Lanen signing an extension late last season, he isn&#8217;t going anywhere and will be the presumed starting left tackle moving forward.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">So what options do the Jaguars have with Little?<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">Well, as is the case with any player, there are three. Little can play out his current deal for the 2026 season. The Jaguars could release him or attempt to trade him.<\/p>\n<p>Expert NFL picks: <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" data-t-l=\":body nav (nfl)|e|auto spike click:4|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_sp_a\" href=\"https:\/\/sportsdata.usatoday.com\/football\/nfl\/picks\">Exclusive betting insights only at USA TODAY.<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">From a salary cap standpoint, there isn&#8217;t any incentive for the Jaguars to release Little. <a href=\"https:\/\/overthecap.com\/player\/walker-little\/9509\" data-t-l=\":b|z|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">According to Over the Cap<\/a>, it&#8217;s actually cheaper to have Little on the roster in 2026 than it would be to release him.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">Even if the Jaguars released Little with a post-June 1st designation, they would only save $941,176 in salary cap space. If you ask me, I&#8217;d rather have Little on the roster providing depth than save that little in cap space.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">Now, trading Little would save the Jaguars $7.26 million in 2026 salary cap space, but another team would have to be willing to take on his current deal. I&#8217;m not sure how likely that is as he comes with salaries of $11 million and $12 million the next two seasons.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">I suppose a fourth option is the Jaguars could ask Little to take a paycut, but if Little isn&#8217;t worried about the Jaguars releasing him, he doesn&#8217;t have to accept that.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">So to put a bow on all of this &#8212; what is the most likely outcome for 2026? Little is on the roster providing depth.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">Next offseason, this conversation likely goes differently, but we&#8217;ll cross that bridge when we get to it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Feb. 3, 2026, 1:17 p.m. ET What does the future hold for Jacksonville Jaguars&#8217; offensive lineman Walker Little?&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":727159,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2060],"tags":[95878,7,212,125,2401,213,6,31186,95933,95882,103415,95936,95895,95897,95883,103416,95881],"class_list":{"0":"post-727158","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-jacksonville-jaguars","8":"tag-accessfree","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-jacksonville","11":"tag-jacksonville-jaguars","12":"tag-jacksonvillejaguars","13":"tag-jaguars","14":"tag-nfl","15":"tag-sstssportsnfljaguars","16":"tag-sstsnjaguars","17":"tag-tagamerican-football","18":"tag-tagcole-van-lanen","19":"tag-tagjacksonville-jaguars","20":"tag-tagnfl-hub","21":"tag-tagoverall-negative","22":"tag-tagsports-news","23":"tag-tagwalker-little","24":"tag-typestory"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116008786645177258","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/727158","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=727158"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/727158\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/727159"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=727158"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=727158"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=727158"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}