Eagles Top 25 Best Players Countdown: Second Year Player Shoots To No. 4

The sky is the limit for talented second-year player Jalen Carter.

Oct 1, 2023; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA; Washington Commanders quarterback Sam Howell (14) runs past Philadelphia Eagles defensive tackle Jalen Carter (98) during the first quarter at Lincoln Financial Field. / Eric Hartline-USA TODAY Sports

PHILADELPHIA - When conference calls with opposing NFL coaches were a requirement around the league there was always a similar refrain when it game to game planning for the Philadelphia Eagles defense.

And it began with 91 and 55, a nod to the recently retired Fletcher Cox and Brandon Graham, who is set to start his 15th and final season in September.

The Cox baton has been passed and the recipient is uber-talented second-year pro Jalen Carter, who finished No. 4 in Sports Illustrated’s 2024 Top 25 Eagles rankings put together by Eagles on SI’s beat reporters Ed Kracz and John McMullen.

The list has become an annual affair as the two reporters submit their top 25 lists simultaneously so each would be unaffected by the others. No. 1 on the list is awarded 25 points and so on down the list with No. 25 receiving one point.

Carter was No. 4 on McMullen’s list and a tick lower in Kracz’s mind at No. 5. But each graded the runner-up for NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year as Philadelphia’s top defender entering the season, a sentiment new defensive coordinator Vic Fangio seems to share.

“I think he’s talented enough that no matter what we do with him, we’ll be maximizing him,” the veteran DC said.

Eagles DC Vic Fangio will be leaning on Jalen Carter this season. / John McMullen/SI Eagles

No one questions Carter’s ability but there’s been a theme with Georgia defenders regarding conditioning. The Bulldogs have been so deep and talented at the college level that even their star players don’t participate in as many reps as they are asked to at the pro level.

Carter was virtually unblockable at times early in his rookie season before falling off during the team’s late-season collapse which cost him the Defensive Rookie of the Year Award. 

“He’s got to get in great shape,” Fangio admitted, “... so we can play him a lot.”

Carter was graded as the sixth-best interior defensive lineman in the NFL last season by Pro Football Focus, in the conversation with difference-makers like Dexter Lawrence, the now-retired Aaron Donald, Quinnen Williams, Derrick Brown, and Chris Jones. And that’s with observers believing he fell off in the second half of the season.

“My first year was OK. It wasn’t how I wanted it to end,” Carter said. “A lot of stuff that I’ve seen on film is a lot of stuff I need to fix. It was OK. But we’re here now, and I’m ready to be better than last year.”

Carter played 563 snaps last season, only 48% of the team’s total, generating 6.0 sacks and a mind-blowing 47 pressures.

As a comp Cox, the foundational piece on the interior for over a decade, played 509 as a rookie in 2012 (49%) before going on a run of 11 seasons where he never dipped below 600 again and had nine seasons of over 700 snaps, topping out with consecutive seasons of over 900 in 2014 (921) and 2015 (983) when he was the best pure football player on the Eagles.

It’s not conservative to say that Fangio will want Carter at the 700 mark this season at the bare minimum and would prefer him to be in the 800-900 range, something Cox did five times. If that latter bar is reached that means Carter is healthy and playing at a high level, which would likely put him in the conversation to be No. 1 on the list this time next year.

“It’s been a lot on conditioning,” Carter said when asked about preparing to handle a Cox-level workload. “Really, I’d like to be a lot more conditioned than working on technique because we’ve got all year for technique stuff. …I did more conditioning than I did hand moving and stuff like that.”

And the goals?

If the conditioning is there, that will all fall into place for the talented Carter.

“I wouldn’t say right now,” Carter said. “I’m just going with the flow right now, trying to do my best to stay conditioned. But goals coming soon.”

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