Eagles Taking Big Risk on Jalen Carter, Says Anonymous NFL Executive

The Philadelphia Eagles have garnered a lot of praise from fans for their NFL Draft class. While those inside the NFL have not been so kind.

For the Philadelphia Eagles, "the rich got richer" is especially true coming out of the 2023 NFL Draft, as they landed one of the top talents in Jalen Carter with the No. 9 overall pick, trading up one spot with the Chicago Bears to land him. Then they had Carter's former Georgia Bulldog teammate Nolan Smith fall to them at No. 30 overall.

The seven-member draft class, which featured three Bulldogs, has had many proclaiming the Eagles as the biggest winners from the draft. Others, mostly anonymous NFL executives, have not been as complimentary of the draft haul. Following up on reports on some executives around the league being annoyed by the Howie Roseman praise, The Athletic released an article collecting the thoughts on all 32 teams' draft classes from their counterparts in the form of anonymous quotes.

The comments about the Eagles selecting Carter were interesting. ...

“We had an honest discussion, if he fell to us in the second round, would we take him?” an AFC team executive told The Athletic about Carter. “I don’t know. It seems like those guys don’t succeed, but you get a ton of points for drafting them.”

Questions about Carter's character arose after he was involved in the car accident that took the lives of Devin Willock and Chandler LeCroy. Just hours before he was set to speak with the media ahead of the NFL Combine, news broke that a warrant for Carter's arrest was put out in Athens, Clarke Country, on charges of reckless driving and racing, which he later pleaded no contest. 

Carter's less-than-impressive performance at Georgia's Pro Day weeks later, where he looked tired and even came in overweight, added to the pre-draft concerns, which by the sounds of it, took him off the board of that AFC team. 

“When you just reached the Super Bowl like the Eagles did, and you have former Georgia people on your roster and on your staff, like the Eagles do, you can take that risk,” a different executive told The Athletic.

No prospect is guaranteed to be a star in the NFL, no matter how well they performed at the college level. The concerns about Carter are legitimate, but it is a risk worth taking for a team like the Eagles, who need young players who can come in and play early.

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