Lorenzo Carter: The Good, The Great, and The Ugly

In the third round of the 2018 NFL Draft, the Giants selected a raw, yet incredibly athletic, pass rusher out of the University of Georgia named Lorenzo Carter. The former Bulldog was utilized all over the Georgia front seven and was even tasked to cover the slot receiver and offered so much promise to an NFL team.

Fast forward to 2020. The promising pass rusher has yet to break out or display a level of consistency that would invoke feelings of confidence amongst the Giants’ fanbase.

According to Pro Football Focus, Carter had 29 pressures, four sacks, and 23 solo tackles in his rookie campaign, while recording 35 pressures, six sacks, and 28 solo tackles this past season (24 of those tackles were classified as STOPS).

The statistics reveal a slight increase between the years. Still, it’s hardly inspiring, especially when the Giants seem to be putting a significant precedent on the development of Carter and second-year pass rusher Oshane Ximines.

Carter flashes excellent potential, athletic ability, burst, and even flexibility, but the lack of regularity in these flashes of potential is concerning when the team seems to be putting a lot of stock into him having a breakout season in his third year as a pro.

An ability to have a pass rusher consistently win one versus one is important. Twists/Stunts can substitute for the problem, but individual skill-sets are still of grave importance.

Assiduously parsing through his tape to find out if a breakout is possible is my goal for this week's edition of The Good, The Great, and the Ugly.

(In the clips shown, Lorenzo Carter is No. 59.)

The Good: He Can Set the Edge at a Solid Level

Setting the edge against the run is one of the harder aspects for athletic EDGE rushers. Having an ability to beat tackles with your first step and speed, while also being able to out leverage them at the point of attack with strength and technique isn’t an easy thing to possess.

The Giants come out in a BEAR front with the two edge rushers off the tackles, so the Bills motion Lee Smith, No. 85, who is a biscuit away from being a tackle, keeps Carter from closing the C-gap (between the tackle and the tight end).

Carter does a good job using his length and strength to control Smith at the point of attack. He gets inside Smith, drops his weight, angles his hips towards the C-Gap while using his outside arm to keep Smith away from the hole, and then aggressively narrows the gap when the running back closes in. This is a very good play by Carter.

Later in the Bills game, Carter takes on the pulling play side guard in the pin-pull concept with the tackle. Along with the pulling guard, the center also pulls, and Carter takes out both pullers, which allows Ryan Connelly, No. 57, and Alec Ogletree, No. 47, to scrape over the top and make the tackle.

Dexter Lawerence’s excellent penetration of the A-gap (between the center and guard) helped dissolve any success that this play may have had, but Carter eliminating the two pullers would have effectively done that as well.

Carter gets low and attacks the upfield shoulder of the pulling guard, which gives himself leverage to attack the running back.

Carter is again covered by a tight end who attempts to take the end man on the line of scrimmage out of the equation, but it’s to no avail.

Carter does an excellent job dropping his weight to establish better leverage, gaining the chest of the tight end, and then using his power to push the tight end inside to restrict any interior gaps with the replacement of the force defender, Julian Love, swinging to the outside.

Carter then uses his length to push the tight end off his body while exploding inside to make the tackle at the line of scrimmage.

It’s not just tight ends that Carter seems to have success against when facing the run. Watch how he can absorb the contact of the Bucs' tackle and re-anchor himself into the ground after the initial blowback.

The tackle attempts to use his inside arm to “sling-shot” Carter off the edge, but Carter’s strength is enough to prevent that desired outcome. He’s able to reposition, sink, and slide inside to make the tackle in the B-gap (between the guard and tackle) against the power/gap concept.

Carter typically does an excellent job as a back-side defender in pursuit, and he’s frequently unblocked. After watching the film, he was the unblocked defender much more than I anticipated.

In the play above in week 17 against the Eagles, he’s the play-side defender that the Eagles attempt to avoid with a quick wide receiver jet-sweep to his side. If the Eagles leave him unblocked, then they can allocate blocking resources towards the other ten defenders, but the sweep has to get to the perimeter before Carter gets upfield.

Carter is the end man on the line of scrimmage and witnesses the pre-snap motion, so he makes an athletic play to ensure that the defense doesn’t falter around the edge.

This play shows incredible athletic ability for a man of Carter’s size, mental processing to recognize and diagnose, and good finishing ability, something that Carter must do at a more consistent level.

The Great: Pass Rush Flashes

I wish I could say there was more chronicity with his ability to affect the offense against the pass, but the times that he does are palpable.

Sure, Carter will win with stunts/twists that confuse the communication of offensive protections, but he also has shown an ability to thrive with speed, flexibility, and some pass-rushing nuance.

Carter is going up against a solid blocking tight end, Ryan Izzo, No. 85, but he’s no match for the edge rusher.

Carter’s wide of the tight end and attacks the upfield shoulder of the tight end, but Izzo does a solid job, initially, cutting the angle off and meeting Carter up the pass-rushing arc.

The adaptation Carter displays throughout the rep is the encouraging aspect because it shows hand fighting, natural flexibility, bend through contact, speed, and pass-rushing moves (Rip, Speed Dip).

Izzo’s inside shoulder gets grabbed and pulled downward as Carter gets to the half-man relationship; Carter’s rip move for Izzo compounds the stress of this.

The ability to turn the corner and get back into the pocket is also awe-inspiring here. This is against a tight end, and that must be considered for perspective purposes, but there are several things that Carter does correctly throughout this play, and the result is six points for the Giants defense.

In the same game against Marshall Newhouse #72, a tackle, Carter shows more flexibility in his hips to avoid the punch of Newhouse, who was beaten outside by the speed of the pass rusher.

Carter completely makes Newhouse miss the upper body portion of the blocking attempt and just dips underneath the hand fighting. These are the types of flashes that should get Giants’ fans excited about the young pass rusher. It’s a remarkably impressive play to manipulate a tackle like this, but Newhouse isn’t Tyron Smith.

This rep above happens to be against Tyron Smith #77. Carter is wide and adjusts up the pass-rushing arc to defeat the talented tackle; he initially attempts to make inside arm contact on Smith’s inside shoulder but fails, so he turns to speed.

He gets to the half-man relationship and dips at the hip when Smith knocks his hands off his chest. Carter quickly turns the corner on Smith, maintains his balance, and explodes into the pocket to hit Dak Prescott, No. 4. This isn’t a sack, but it’s a really good play against a tough competitor.

He does a similar thing against Geron Christian #74 of Washington; after some hand fighting up the pass-rushing arc, Carter never allows the tackle to close width, so he stresses his speed up the arc and starts to corner. Carter earns the edge easily and turns swiftly to explode into the pocket and force the heavy hit on quarterback Case Keenum, No. 8.

Carter abuses Christian again on the edge with speed from a wide-angle. Carter makes initial contact on the inside breastplate of Christian, pushing him backward with strength, and setting the tackle up to have his outside arm swatted downward.

Carter uses his lower-leg drive to bully Christian back into the pocket and make contact with Keenum’s arm to force an incompletion in the red-zone. Speed, burst, overall athletic ability, strength, and taking advantage of players that you’re better than are all good signs to the development of Lorenzo Carter.

Carter uses a wide-angled bull-rush, inside move counter, against Donald Penn, No. 72 in the play above; similar to some of the plays above, Carter wallops Penn in the chest, controlling the veteran tackle, before swimming inside with a counter move while Penn is off-balanced. Speed, strength, adaptiveness, and burst are all displayed by Carter above.

Bettcher utilized Carter in various spots outside of just being a wide rusher. Carter was used as a MIKE (middle linebacker), LEO (left end-outside), REO (right end outside), and even on the inside of the line of scrimmage like we see above from the 3-Technique position.

Carter was frequently used as the hammer and looper on stunts. Above, he’s the hammer on the tackle/linebacker and the tackle/tackle twist between Carter, Michael Thomas, and Leonard Williams.

Carter uses might and strength to easily toss the interior offensive lineman out of the way for the sack of Dwayne Haskins, No. 7.

Another underrated part of Carter’s game is his patience and processing speed in terms of not overreacting and executing movements with diligence.

The wide jump-set by the Lions offensive tackle renders Carter’s upfield push ineffective, and he realizes the lack of leverage he has would just lead to him being pushed up the pass-rushing arc, so he stays patient.

Carter waits for the up-field push of B.J. Hill to create a natural pick against the tackle when Carter shoots inside and underneath Hill.

Carter gets the tackle to go up-field just enough to obstruct the tackle’s blocking path towards Carter once he goes underneath Hill. Carter makes smart reactionary plays like the one above quite often.

The Ugly: Consistency

Throughout this article, a lot of positive clips show Carter’s ability to set the edge, rush the passer, and make impressive tackles around the line of scrimmage. However, the reality remains that these clips are too few and far between.

For every great clip of Lorenzo Carter, there are also plays where he doesn’t seal the edge, those typically against better, stronger, tackles. The pressure is also something that flashes, yet sometimes can’t seem to turn on at all.

Carter was tied for 55th amongst edge players in pressures created with 35 on the season. Games like the New England and second Washington games stick out, but others like the Jets and first Eagles match up that seemed to suggest that Carter wasn’t even playing.

The lack of consistency in most football facets is my most concerning thing for the young pass rusher, but that can come with more time; let’s not forget he’s going into his third season.

Carter's technique on the positive plays, combined with his incredible athletic ability and solid power, allude to a very solid edge player if he can ever utilize all of these traits consistently.

It’s a make or break year for Lorenzo Carter, and it’s great to see him put two of his best games together towards the end of the season, but he has to make significant strides in 2020.

Final Thoughts

Reasonable arguments can be made to support Carter’s development, despite his lack of consistency. One example is his incredibly strong finish to the season, where he dominated Washington and made some important stops against the Eagles.

The flashes propose the idea that Carter can be more than just a situational player if he continues to develop.

It’s reasonable to think that Carter may be in a more optimal position now with defensive line coach Sean Spencer and outside linebacker coach Bret Bielema.

The former was an excellent coach for a long time at Penn State, and one of the most impressive acquisitions by coach Joe Judge, while the latter is the former head coach at Arkansas and an assistant in New England.

I would feel much more comfortable in a normal off-season, but no one has a normal off-season this year. I expect a solid third-year leap for Carter, and if he can maximize his skill-set and the traits that he possesses, then the Giants got a steal back in the third round of 2018.

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