Jalen Carter Visits Eagles; Potential Draft Pick at No. 10?
Jalen Carter is confident he will be a top-10 draft pick when the opening round begins on April 27. So confident is the Georgia defensive tackle that his agent, Drew Rosenhaus, said he is only visiting with teams scheduled to pick in the top 10.
That would, of course, include the Philadelphia Eagles, who own the New Orleans Saints’ pick at No. 10.
Per ESPN's Adam Schefter, Carter has already visited the Eagles and is going to visit the Chicago Bears on Monday.
“I’m confident Jalen will go in the top 10," Rosenhaus told Schefter. "He’s a good person, a family man, loves football and is a generational talent.”
The Eagles certainly could stand to add to their defensive line.
They lost Javon Hargrave in free agency to the San Francisco 49ers and Fletcher Cox is at the point of his 11-year NFL career that he is on a year-to-year contract. He returned on a one-year, $10 million deal for this season.
The Eagles added former New Orleans Saints defensive tackle Kentavius Street in free agency to join an interior that has last year’s No. 1 pick, Jordan Davis, Milton Williams and Marlon Tuipulotu.
Carter has been a part of Bulldogs defensive front that has won back-to-back national championship. Two seasons ago, he did it with Davis next to him at defensive tackle and Nakobe Dean at linebacker.
Dean was drafted by the Eagles in the third-round last year, reuniting him with Davis.
Dean, who attended the draft in Las Vegas last year, was considered a first-round prospect but slid to the third round. Carter is expected to attend this year's draft in Kansas City.
His recent off-field troubles and a poor workout at his pro day could cause him to slide, though likely not out of the first round. He’s just too good, and if he can explain what happened on the night that two Georgia students were killed, and that he has a true passion for the game, he may not make it out of the top 10.
It will be interesting to see what the Eagles do if Carter is there at No. 10 or begins to slide outside the first five.
Would they trade up or wait until he’s there at 10, or pass him up completely?
The Eagles don’t typically draft players with a red-flag history, and Carter has one of those.
He pled no contest on Mach 16 to charges of racing and reckless driving that led to the deaths of teammate Devin Willock and a team staff member, Chandler LeCroy, on Jan. 15.
Carter was sentenced to 12 months of probation and 50 hours of community service and completion of a state-approved defensive driving course.
Davis was good friends with the two who were killed in the accident, so the Eagles would likely have to make sure he, and maybe Dean, too, would be OK having Carter in the locker room.
The crash happened hours after the Bulldogs' national championship victory parade.
Prior to the crash, on Sept. 22, Carter was stopped for speeding and given three tickets – one for speeding after he was doing 89 MPH in a 45-MPH zone, a second for having a “material affixed” to his windshield that “obstructs his vision,” and a third for having an illegal windshield tint.
During his pro day last month, Carter weighed in at 323 pounds, which was nine pounds heavier than he had weighed I just two weeks earlier at the NFL Scouting Combine.
Still, the defensive tackle is ranked No. 5 overall in the list of the top 50 prospects by NFL draft analyst and former Eagles scout Daniel Jeremiah.
Ed Kracz covers the Philadelphia Eagles for SI Fan Nation Eagles Today and co-host of the Eagles Unfiltered Podcast. please follow him on Twitter: @kracze.
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