On3 Roundtable: Abdul Carter has room to grow and that’s scary

Penn State linebacker Abdul Carter isn’t even at his peak yet and that’s a scary thought, according to BlueWhiteIllustrated’s Sean Fitz.

Fitz joined the On3 Roundtable with J.D. PicKell and he mentioned how Carter could be a game wrecker. A game wrecker in the Micah Parsons sense, and Penn State fans know how well he played for the Nittany Lions.

Carter is a linebacker to watch out for in the Big Ten and he might only just be getting started.

“He’s got all the athletic things,” Fitz said. “He’s got the size, he can run. He can close like crazy. When he gets to the ball he gets there violently, which is fun to watch. But there’s a lot of ways that he can get better. Reading his keys (for instance). I mean, this is a guy that essentially thought that he might be an edge rusher, thought that he might be a linebacker, but he had the ability to stick a linebacker at his size, which you don’t you don’t always get. Especially at a place like Penn State. So he’s got so much room to improve and I think that’s the scary part.”

As far as the future is concerned with Carter, Fitz sees first-round NFL Draft potential.

“I think he’s got first round potential, athletically, but he’s gonna have to come along with coverage,” Fitz said. “He’s gonna have to come along with reading his keys and getting where he needs to be. It’s Micah Parsons in the sense that you can just freewheel him and let him do things but for him to be his best player, or the best prospect that he can be, he’s still got some room to grow and that’s that’s pretty scary.”

What’s scary is how Carter can improve from an impressive freshman campaign. He made an immediate impact in all 13 games in 2022.

In 13 games as a freshman, Carter finished with 56 total tackles, 36 solo tackles, 10.5 tackles for loss, 6.5 sacks, four pass deflections and two forced fumbles.

As a member of the Class of 2022, Carter was a four-star recruit out of Philadelphia (Pa.) La Salle College, according to the On3 Industry Ranking, a weighted average that utilizes all four major recruiting media companies. He was the No. 6 overall prospect in the state, the No. 22 linebacker in the class and the No. 222 overall prospect in the class.