Delanie Walker said in March that he wants to play in 2021 after spending last season out of football and he had a workout with the 49ers in June, but no team has added the veteran tight end to their roster at this point.
Walker believes that will change in the coming weeks. During a podcast appearance with Turron Davenport of ESPN.com, Walker said he wants to play and would ideally sign with a contender in order to pursue a Super Bowl ring. He’s not sure if he’ll get a chance with a team in that position, but feels confident that some team is going to identify a need at tight end before or during camp.
“My goal is just to try and get in the best shape I can possibly get in because I know that opportunity is going to come where someone is going to need a tight end for training camp, and that’s where my opportunity is going to come,” Walker said. “But for right now, I couldn’t tell you who I will be playing for or what teams are looking at me. They talk to me, but at the end of the day I feel like they think that the ankle is a problem, and my age, so teams are really not trying to give me a good deal I feel like. We’ll see what happens in a time of need, when they really need a tight end.”
Ankle injuries limited Walker to eight games over the 2018 and 2019 seasons. He told Davenport that he has not had any recent complications with his health while acknowledging that he hasn’t been able to test himself in game action in a long time. He’ll get a chance to change that if he’s right about what will happen in the coming weeks.