Walter Nolen III

Defensive Tackle, Arizona Cardinals · #97.

Player facts

Team: Arizona Cardinals
Position: Defensive Tackle
Number: 97
Born: Oct 14, 2003 (age 23)
Birthplace: Powell, TN, USA
Height: 6' 4"
Weight: 300 lbs
College: Ole Miss
Experience: 2 seasons
Status: Active

Stats

2026 Defense

	TOT	SOLO	AST	SACK	FR	YDS	PD	STF	STFYDS
Regular Season	12	3	9	1	0	0	0	2	2
Last 5 Games	12	3	9	1	0	0	0	2	0
Career	23	11	12	3	1	7	2	5.5	13

Recent games

			Tackles				Fumbles		Interceptions
Date	Opponent	Result	TOT	SOLO	AST	SACK	FF	FR	INT	YDS	AVG	TD	LNG	PD	KB
Sun, Oct 11	vs DET	L 45-21	4	0	4	0	0	0	0	0	0.0	0	0	0	0
Sun, Oct 4	@ NYG	L 36-24	4	3	1	1	0	0	0	0	0.0	0	0	0	0
Sun, Sep 27	@ SF	L 36-30	1	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0.0	0	0	0	0
Sun, Sep 20	vs SEA	L 31-7	2	0	2	0	0	0	0	0	0.0	0	0	0	0
Sun, Sep 13	@ LAC	W 26-14	1	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0.0	0	0	0	0

Last 5 games. Click a game for its box score.

About

Walter Nolen III (born October 14, 2003) is an American professional football defensive tackle for the Arizona Cardinals of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the Texas A&M Aggies and Ole Miss Rebels, earning consensus All-American honors with the latter in 2024. Nolen was selected by the Cardinals in the first round of the 2025 NFL draft.

From Wikipedia’s article on Walter Nolen, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.¹

Background

Early life

Nolen played high school football at three different schools: Olive Branch High School in Olive Branch, Mississippi, as a freshman and sophomore; Saint Benedict at Auburndale in Memphis as a junior; and Powell High School in Powell, Tennessee, as a senior. He also enrolled for a time at IMG Academy but did not play there. His coach at Powell, Matt Lowe, described him as "a young man who has been blessed with size, speed and athleticism."

In his senior year at Powell, Nolen had 93 tackles, 33 tackles for loss, 27 quarterback hurries, and 17 sacks. After the season, he was invited to play in the Under Armour All-America Game. Nolen was named USA Today High School Defensive Football Player of the Year and was rated as the country's top recruit of the 2022 class by the same publication.

Recruiting

Nolen was rated by ESPN as the No. 1 football recruit in the 2022 recruiting class. He was ranked No. 2 by Rivals.com and 247Sports, behind Travis Hunter. Nolen received offers from numerous schools and narrowed his final five to Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Michigan, and Tennessee. In November 2021, Nolen committed to play college football for Texas A&M. He later paid an official visit to Tennessee, raising speculation that his commitment was uncertain. He then signed his letter of intent with Texas A&M in December 2021. He was part of a recruiting class at Texas A&M that was rated as the best in the history of recruiting rankings.

College career

On December 24, 2023, Nolen announced he would transfer to Ole Miss. At the conclusion of the 2024 season, Nolen was named a consensus first team All-American.

From Wikipedia’s article on Walter Nolen, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0. Read the full article.¹