Jalen Carter drafted No. 9 overall by Philadelphia Eagles

Georgia defensive lineman Jalen Carter is off the board in the 2023 NFL Draft. Carter received his call from the defending NFC champion Philadelphia Eagles, who traded into the No. 9 pick to take him. There he’ll reconvene with Jordan Davis and Nakobe Dean who the team took in last year’s draft.

A former five-star, the Apopka, Fla. product was ranked the nation’s No. 14 overall player and No. 4 defensive lineman coming out of high school. NFL Hall of Fame defensive lineman Warren Sapp also attended Apopka, and Carter will look to follow in his professional footsteps starting this fall.

Carter spent three seasons in Athens after signing with Georgia in the Class of 2020. The 6-foot-3, 314 pound Carter saw action early in his career. He played in all 10 games as a freshman, starting against Florida and South Carolina, and finished with 14 total stops including three for lost yardage.

Twice during the 2020 season did Carter have his season-high three tackles, coming against Tennessee and South Carolina while also making another signature play in each outing. Versus the Volunteers, he caught a touchdown pass from Stetson Bennett out of Georgia’s jumbo formation before he blocked an extra point in the late-season win over the Gamecocks.

Carter stepped into a larger role as a sophomore in 2021, considered by many to be the best player on Georgia’s generational defense. Once again, Carter played in every outing for the Bulldogs – 15 in 2021 – with a pair of starts, and finished with 37 tackles and 33 quarterback pressures, second-best on the team.

Once again, Carter had a knack for the big play with 8.5 tackles for loss – third best among all Bulldogs – including 3.0 sacks. He also was one of just 20 players in the country to have two blocked placement kicks after having one the year before. His first came against Kentucky on a PAT late in the game. The second of the two of those came in a much more crucial situation in the College Football Playoff Championship Game against Alabama and helped set up the Bulldogs’ first touchdown in the win shortly after. Carter was named to the Coaches’ All-SEC Second-Team for his efforts in 2021.

Once again, Carter improved upon his previous performances in 2022. While his total tackle number went down, that was due in large part to missed time from injury. Carter battled a pair of injuries early in the season and was limited largely because of it. However, once healthy, he proved to be one of the most impactful players in all of College Football.

Carter finished the season with 32 tackles including 7.0 for loss, all of which came in a five-game stretch after returning to full strength. During that dominant stretch, Carter earned Bednarik Award Player of the Week for his performance in Georgia’s win over then-top-ranked Tennessee with two sacks and two forced fumbles. He then followed that up with a career-high seven stops in Georgia’s SEC East clinching win at Mississippi State. He also had a pair of tackles for loss in the SEC Championship Game win over LSU.

Carter earned unanimous All-American honors in 2022 being named to the first-team by the Associated Press, Football Writers Association of America, Walter Camp Foundation and Sporting News. He is one of just 13 players in Georgia program history to earn that title, doing so alongside Christopher Smith this past season.

The last few months certainly have been tumultuous for Carter since he last suited up for Georgia in the National Championship Game against TCU. He was arrested for reckless driving and racing related to the car crash that tragically took the lives of one of Carter’s teammates and a Georgia Football support staffer and has had his character called into question more than a handful of times. However, through it all, Carter and his agent Drew Rosenhaus remained confident that he’d end up as a top-10 pick. That comes true on night one of the 2023 NFL Draft.