After months of speculation, the Philadelphia Eagles came away with arguably the most dominant overall player in the NFL Draft in Jalen Carter. The Georgia DT was selected with the 9th overall pick after Philly moved up to secure its new cornerstone pass-rusher, which, if anything, acted as a supreme sign of confidence from Howie Roseman.
Jalen Carter falls gracefully into Howie’s lap
There has naturally been a lot of noise surrounding Jalen Carter. His involvement in a crash that resulted in the death of a teammate was well documented, and his pro-day showing was far from stellar. But the tape from a stellar 2022 season was simply something else. If Howie Roseman could really dig deep on Jalen Carter and ensure that there are no dangers of character concerns re-appearing at the NFL level, he was in the perfect spot to land a generational talent…and that’s what he did.
I think all of us when we were 21 and 22 hopefully have grown a lot from that time, and you just really want to get to know the person and what’s in their heart. I think when we got to know Jalen, we just felt like here’s a kid that he does love football. Obviously, he’s a winner. He won in high school, he won in college.
We feel like we have really good people in this building. We have really good support staff. We have really good players who are good people. We have really good coaches. We felt like it was a good fit for us….
…We’re going to wrap our arms around him and do the best we can to help him and understand — that was a tragic night. It was a tragic night, and we’re sorry for the loss to those families, and we’re not trying to downplay that situation, but obviously we’ve got to get to work.
– Howie Roseman
Carter is a monstrous defensive tackle who is as lethal against the run as he is explosive against the pass. His numbers speak for themselves, with 83 tackles, 18.5 TFL, and 6 total sacks in his time as a Bulldog. To make things even sweeter, he’ll be paired up with his former Georgia teammates who helped get the best out of him in 2021.
Jalen Carter will be reuniting with former teammates
A report came out shortly before the draft citing that Jordan Davis’s leadership was an instrumental cog in the rise of Jalen Carter. It’s clear that the Eagles felt strongly enough about their 2021 first-round selection’s ability to continue to do that at the NFL level.
Carter expressed excitement when asked about the idea of playing with both Nakobe Dean and Jordan Davis.
Coming back and playing with former teammates is an exciting moment for me. Those guys were the leaders of the 2021 team. I know if i got any questions I can ask them”
Howie Roseman later opened up to reporters about the roles both Jordan Davis and Nakobe Dean had during this process.
Jordan and Nakobe are their own entities. We need Jordan to be a great player, we need Nakobe to be a great player, and I don’t think it’s fair for us to put the responsibility on those two guys. It’s our responsibility to manage this team and to make sure that we have the right pieces around, and I look around, our people who are here tonight who are in our organization and I have tremendous confidence in our people.
Jalen Carter is a player who is built for the NFL, but whose start to 2023 could’ve quickly derailed that train. The good news is that it didn’t, and the better news is that he’s landed in a place surrounded by familiar faces who know how to keep him firmly on that track. If that train keeps rolling, it will reach All-Pro destination in no time.
AP Photo/Ashley Landis
