Daniel Jeremiah explains why Jalen Carter is top overall prospect
Georgia defensive lineman Jalen Carter has a strong chance of going No. 1 overall in the upcoming NFL Draft, and he’ll have a chance to show why that is this week at the Scouting Combine. NFL.com’s Daniel Jeremiah has Carter as his top prospect and shared why that was over the weekend.
“I think Jalen Carter is the best player in the draft from Georgia, and I think that Will Anderson is the second best player,” Jeremiah said. “But I know in talking to people around the league and when I do mock drafts, you’re trying to get just a feel and the potential outcomes there and not just doing the same exact thing every single time. I know that there’s teams that have it really, really close, and some actually even prefer Tyree Wilson to Anderson just because of the size and the length and the attributes that he has there. But if you are asking me, I wouldn’t be trading off of either of those two guys. When you look at Jalen Carter, Will Anderson, I probably wouldn’t want to get out if I were them, as desperate as they are for defensive linemen. I think those are the two best guys.”
Carter finished up his collegiate career this past season with 32 tackles in 13 games. That included seven tackles for loss and three sacks, forcing two fumbles as well. The former five-star played his best football for the Bulldogs down the stretch after getting healthy from a pair of injuries that slowed him some early in the season. All seven of his stops for lost yardage game in a five-game stretch that started against Tennessee when Carter earned Bednarik Player of the Week with a pair of TFLs and forced fumbles. He followed that up with a career-high seven tackles the next week at Mississippi State.
“In terms of Carter as a player, it’s overused, I guess, but I don’t know how else to describe him, he is just a freak show when you are watching him. It just looks like he works at a different speed than everybody else on the field,” Jeremiah said. “The change of direction, you know, he can kind of teleport from one gap to the next and you are, like, I don’t know how he got there, but you’ve got no chance.”
“The offensive line coach at Georgia is a good buddy of mine, Stacy Searels, and when I asked him about Jalen Carter, and he said, when he comes to practice and doesn’t want to get blocked, he is not getting blocked,” Jeremiah continued. “I mean, he is a unique player. If you want to see the athleticism, go read my buddy Bruce Feldman’s article about him and look at the dunk that he posted inside the article. You can see him with windmill dunking over 300 pounds. He is an absolute freak. I think he is better than Quinnen Williams coming out, and I loved Quinnen Williams, so that’s the type of player you’re getting.”
The Chicago Bears currently hold the No. 1 overall pick but there’s been plenty of talk about possibly trading out of it if a quarterback-needy team tries to trade up. Travon Walker out of Georgia was the first player picked last year to the Jacksonville Jaguars, becoming the record-tying fifth Bulldog to be taken in the top spot.
