Edge rusher Travon Walker and the Jacksonville Jaguars agreed Friday on a four-year, $110 million contract extension, his representatives said.
Elite Loyalty Sports said the deal includes $50 million fully guaranteed at signing and up to $77 million in potential guarantees.
Walker, the No. 1 overall pick in the 2022 NFL draft, is entering the fifth and final year of his rookie contract and had been scheduled to make $15 million guaranteed in 2026.
Walker has 27 1/2 sacks over four seasons. He has 200 tackles, including 36 for a loss, while playing in 63 games. He has yet to make a Pro Bowl and selecting him ahead of Detroit star Aidan Hutchinson appears to be a glaring mistake for the franchise.
But Walker has nonetheless been a dependable defender and one of the best run-stopping linemen in the league over the last four seasons. He played through a dislocated left wrist and a knee injury last season.
Together, Walker and Josh Hines-Allen have helped provide a formidable front for the Jaguars and are now defensive cornerstones for general manager James Gladstone and coach Liam Coen for the foreseeable future.
Hines-Allen signed a five-year, $141 million contract in 2024 that included a $32 million signing bonus and $88 million guaranteed.
Jacksonville did little in free agency on defense — despite losing Pro Bowl linebacker Devin Lloyd — but is expected to heavily address that side of the ball in the NFL draft. The Jaguars need linebackers, a defensive tackle, a backup edge rusher and maybe a defensive back.
Walker's extension is a fraction of what Hutchinson got last year. He signed a four-year, $180 million extension with the Lions in October, a deal that included $141 million in total guarantees.
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FILE - A spectator gestures as Jacksonville Jaguars defensive end Travon Walker is introduced onto the field prior to an NFL football game against the Houston Texans Sunday, Sept. 21, 2025, in Jacksonville, Fla. (AP Photo/John Raoux, File)
President Donald Trump tried to put some teeth into his latest attempt to save college sports.
The threat of cutting funding to cash-starved schools that don’t comply is real, even if the stricter rules that come out of the executive order he signed Friday could take a while to figure out.
In the order signed hours before the women’s Final Four tipped off one of the biggest weekends in college sports Trump went after eligibility rules, transfers and the spiraling costs associated with an industry that now pays its players millions of dollars per year.
He called on federal agencies to ensure schools are following the rules and threatened to choke off federal grants and funding, a similar approach his administration has taken to force universities around the country to alter policies involving diversity, equity and inclusion, transgender rights and even the kinds of classes they offer.
In some ways, forcing those changes might seem like child’s play once college sports figures this out. The NCAA, the newly created College Sports Commission, the four power conferences, dozens more smaller ones and hundreds of educational institutions all have a say here: It’s a big reason Congress, which Trump instructed to act quickly, has been stuck for more than a year on this.
Trump’s order was his second since one last July and it was a laundry list of proposed fixes, many of which lawmakers and college leaders have been pushing for since the approval of a $2.8 billion settlement changed the face of games that were once played by pure amateurs.
He called for “clear, consistent and fair eligibility limits, including a five-year participation window," and wants to limit athletes to one transfer with one more available once they get a four-year degree.
At a college sports roundtable last month, Trump said he anticipated any order he signed would trigger litigation. Athletes have largely won the freedom to transfer almost at will via the portal along with the ability to be paid by schools that are now doling out more than $20 million a year to their athletes.
As much as the changes he directs, Trump’s call for the Education Department, the Federal Trade Commission and the attorney general’s office to evaluate “whether violations of such rules render a university unfit for Federal grants and contracts” stands out as a way to force change.
Several universities across the country have made policy changes to comply with federal orders and avoid funding-related showdowns with the government. Yet big-named schools like Penn State and Florida State are facing huge debts.
“I haven’t read it, obviously, but I certainly appreciate his interest in the issue," NCAA President Charlie Baker said at the women's Final Four in Phoenix. "And from what I saw, some of the social media traffic, it’s pretty clear that he made clear that we need congressional action to sort of seal the deal on a number of these things, which is good, because we do.”
ACC Commissioner Jim Phillips praised the president's order, saying “there continues to be significant momentum to preserve the athletic and academic opportunities for the next generation of student-athletes and we appreciate the ongoing efforts.”
Attorney Mit Winter, who follows college sports law, said the order is likely to set up a situation where the NCAA and schools have to decide whether to follow a federal court order or an executive order.
“Federal court orders prohibit the NCAA from making athletes sit out a season if they transfer more than once and prohibit the NCAA from enforcing rules that limit collectives from being involved in recruiting,” he said. "The EO appears to direct the NCAA to create rules that would likely violate both of these court orders. Will the NCAA create rules that do that? And if they do, will schools follow them?
"Either way, we’re likely going to see litigation challenging the EO by athletes and third parties.”
Winter added that the order also appears to urge schools to pay new revenue share amounts.
“Most schools are paying 90-95% of their rev-share funds to men's basketball and football players,” he said. "And those funds are already promised via contracts signed with those athletes. Will the order purport to make schools not adhere to those contracts?”
AP Sports Writers Maura Carey, David Brandt and Eric Olson contributed.
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President Donald Trump pauses as he finishes speaking about the Iran war from the Cross Hall of the White House on Wednesday, April 1, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, Pool)
