There is a 314-pound question mark near the top of the NFL draft this year:
How do teams view Jalen Carter?
Many believe the all-everything defensive tackle out of Georgia is the most talented player in the 2023 draft, but he also is surrounded by off-field issues.
“He’s a tricky one to say the least,” said Mark Dominik, the former Buccaneers general manager who is now a host on SiriusXM NFL Radio. “The talent is elite. There’s not very many defensive tackles you see in this draft class alone. It’s not a heavy defensive tackle draft class, so it makes him stand even more out on the ledge.”
And an NFL GM is going to have to go out on a ledge to draft Carter.
He ended his career at Georgia as the most dominant player in the country, shining brightest on a national championship team filled with stars.
Teams had character concerns about Carter already and they escalated when the Athens (Ga.) Police Department secured an arrest warrant for him on a misdemeanor charge of reckless driving and racing following his presence at the fatal car accident in January that ended in the deaths of teammate Devin Willock and Georgia staff member Chandler LeCroy.
The news of the warrant broke during the NFL Scouting Combine, making the spotlight on Carter even brighter.
He later pleaded no contest and accepted a plea deal of 12 months of probation, a $1,000 fine, 80 hours of community service and finishing a driving course.
A civil suit remains a possibility.
The racing incident is the biggest blemish on Carter’s résumé, but not the only one.
There also are questions about whether he takes plays off.
“One obvious issue on tape is he doesn’t play hard every snap,” former Vikings GM Rick Spielman wrote on “The 33rd Team” site “Teams are also likely asking themselves what type of guy he is off the field. How many hours of manpower and how many resources are teams going to expend to ensure Carter will be the player seen on tape? It starts with his legal issues, which seem to be resolved. Still, teams have to make sure those are checked out thoroughly.”
Carter showed up for his Pro Day weighing nine pounds more than he did just a few weeks earlier at the NFL Combine.
Then, he failed to finish the drills, raising more questions.
“He’s one of those players where this is the value of your area scouts and maybe your area cross-checker and certainly your director of college scouting that have gone to the school and have dug deeper into what we can see from the outside,” Dominik said. “Certainly, the not finishing the Pro Day is not ideal. The drag racing is still under suspicion. We have a director of security that is at every club. Generally, what I would do in this situation is I would send my director of security down there and just dig around the trenches and get a better sense of what is going on.”
Drew Rosenhaus, Carter’s agent, has said his client will only take visits to teams in the top 10 of the draft because he is confident that is where he will be drafted.
ESPN Draft analyst Mel Kiper Jr. has Carter as his No. 1 prospect in the draft and believes he won’t get past the Seahawks, who have the fifth pick.
“As time goes by, it’s more so now as you get to late April what he did on the field,” Kiper said. “He was the best player in college football when he was healthy — a dominant, interior presence, which is what teams need, particularly Seattle. Stopping the run was a huge issue. They were gashed and destroyed against the run last year. They had no run defense whatsoever. So, if you are Seattle picking at five, you can get the No. 1 player who fills a key positional need for you, you can understand why that’s the projection there.”
