ARI Arizona Cardinals · DL· #97

Walter Nolen

Age: 22
Height: 6'4"
Weight: 300 lbs
College: Mississippi; Texas A&M
Drafted: 2025, No. 16 overall (AZ)
Experience: 2nd NFL season

Compare with another player Interior linemen leaderboard

Overall grade

8th of 96 interior linemen

Elite

above average; 50 is average

Grades updated Mon, Oct 12, 3:02 AM ETRechecked every few hours on game days

The read

Walter grades above average among interior linemen so far, with no number far from the middle.

Lately he is playing better. Tackles for loss per 100 snaps is 2.7 over the last 2 games (74 snaps), against 0.0 before that. A few plays could easily explain this. Worth watching, not worth believing yet.

Written from his numbers, not from film. 5 games are behind the season figures.

How he stacks up

Every graded stat at a glance, against all the interior linemen in the league.

Pressures per 100 snaps3.313th of 96small sample
Tackles for loss per 100 snaps1.316th of 96small sample
Sacks per 100 snaps0.722nd of 96small sample

Left is the worst at his job, right is the best, and the line down the middle is average. The bubble is his percentile: 90 means better than nine in ten qualifying interior linemen. Faded bars are still small samples.

How he has progressed

Where he has ranked among interior linemen after each week, and every game behind it.

Season rank climbed: 68th to 88th percentile since Wk 2.

The line is his season-to-date rank among players at his position after each week, from 100 (the best) to 0 (the worst). It rises when he passes other players, not when he has one big game. Early weeks are noisier because fewer plays are behind them. The shaded weeks are the recent stretch.

Pressures per 100 snaps game by game
Week	Opponent	That game	snaps	Season rank after
1	vs LAC	2.8	36	–
2	vs SEA	2.5	40	68th pct
3	vs SF	5.9	34	86th pct
4	vs NYG	2.5	40	88th pct

One game is a small sample: a single stat over 38 snaps can swing on a handful of plays. Shaded rows are the recent stretch.

The numbers, in context

Each one against every interior lineman with at least 80 snaps. Right on the strip is better.

Pressures per 100 snaps

Well above typical

3.3

13th of 96 interior linemen · top 14%

0.0worse to better3.5

Sacks, hits and hurries as Pro Football Reference charts them, for every 100 snaps he plays. A pass rusher is doing his job on plays that never become a sack.

The box score: A sack total misses most of what a rusher does and depends on how many snaps he plays.

Does it show up in winning? Across 129 games league-wide, teams won 42% of the time when their interior lineman was in the best third on pressures per 100 snaps, and 28% when he was in the worst third.

Sacks per 100 snaps

Well above typical

0.7

22nd of 96 interior linemen · top 23%

0.0worse to better1.1

Sacks for every 100 snaps he plays. Rare, so it swings fast; pressures are the steadier read.

The box score: A sack total ignores how many snaps he played.

Does it show up in winning? Across 129 games league-wide, a good or bad game on sacks per 100 snaps from a interior lineman has not lined up much with his team winning (44% wins in the best third, 35% in the worst).

Tackles for loss per 100 snaps

Well above typical

1.3

16th of 96 interior linemen · top 17%

0.0worse to better1.7

Plays he ends behind the line of scrimmage, for every 100 snaps.

The box score: Tackles for loss are counted, but never against the snaps he played.

Does it show up in winning? Across 129 games league-wide, teams won 54% of the time when their interior lineman was in the best third on tackles for loss per 100 snaps, and 30% when he was in the worst third.

Playing time

He has played in 4 of his team's 4 games with snap counts, on the field for about 61% of the team's defensive plays when he plays.

65%
LAC
57%
SEA
63%
SF
60%
NYG
?
DET

Each column is a game: the share of his team's defensive snaps he played. 80% means about 8 of every 10 plays. “Out” means he did not play; a question mark means snap counts are not posted yet. Shaded games are the recent stretch.

Game by game

Every game this season: how it ended for his team, how much he played, his box score, and the advanced numbers from that one game. One game is a small sample, so read the right-hand columns as a snapshot, not his level.

Walter Nolen game by game
Game	Result	Snaps	Tkl	Solo	Ast	TFL	Sacks	Press	Pressures/100	TFL/100
Wk 1 vs LAC	W 26–14	65%	1	0	1	0	0	1	2.8	0.0
Wk 2 vs SEA	L 7–31	57%	2	0	2	0	0	1	2.5	0.0
Wk 3 vs SF	L 30–36	63%	1	0	1	0	0	2	5.9	0.0
Wk 4 vs NYG	L 24–36	60%	3	2	1	2	1	1	2.5	5.0
Wk 5 vs DET	L 21–45	–	4	0	4	0	0	0	–	–

The box score

The traditional totals, with where each ranks among interior linemen. A total rewards volume, which is why the advanced numbers above matter.

Walter Nolen box score totals
Stat	Total	Rank
Tackles	11	41st of 96
Solo tackles	2	73rd of 96
Assisted tackles	9	13th of 96
Tackles for loss	2	19th of 96
Sacks	1	12th of 96
Pressures	5	11th of 96
Passes defended	0	33rd of 96
Interceptions	0	1st of 96
Missed tackles	0	42nd of 96

Players with a similar profile

The interior linemen whose grades are closest to his across the same stats. Similar means similar numbers, not the same style of play.

BUF DL
Deone Walker
Overall 56 · 3.5
Compare
WAS DL
Javon Kinlaw
Overall 57 · 2.6
Compare
TEN DL
Jeffery Simmons
Overall 57 · 2.6
Compare
SEA DL
Jarran Reed
Overall 56 · 3.2
Compare

Ranks are among players at the same job who have enough plays to be graded. Grades and rankings come from play-by-play, charting and snap-count data, so they cannot see blocking, route running or assignments. See how the grades work.

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Data: nflverse play-by-play, CC BY 4.0. Also FTN charting, Pro Football Reference advanced stats, snap counts and injury reports, all through nflverse. Calculations and charts by Raiders Rundown.

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