Jalen Carter 'Wants to be Great'; Eagles Confident in 'Environment' for Growth

Amidst questions surrounding first-round pick Jalen Carter's work ethic, Philadelphia Eagles general manager Howie Roseman went to bat for the defensive tackle while explaining his reasoning for trading up in the draft with the Chicago Bears.

Philadelphia Eagles general manager Howie Roseman's conversation with NBC Sports drew headlines this week after he dubbed personality Mike Florio a "conspiracy theorist" - but he also delivered plenty of other informative tidbits during the appearance.

One such instance came when discussing the Eagles' decision to trade up one spot in the 2023 NFL Draft, going from No. 10 to No. 9 in a move with the Chicago Bears to ensure the right to select defensive tackle Jalen Carter.

Roseman revealed the motives for the trade stemmed from past mistakes in which he went "a little bit more conservative" and got "cute" with draft picks as opposed to aggressively pursuing the player he wanted.

And in this case, that was Carter, who comes with off-field questions ... but Roseman is optimistic in the player and person he's bringing to Philadelphia, though he didn't quite guarantee the Eagles can fix everything.

"Where we were in the draft at that moment, we felt like that was the right thing to do to get Jalen here," Roseman told Florio. "Obviously, we know the story and the background behind Jalen, and we don’t feel so confident in our abilities to know that we can make everything right, but we do feel like in this specific situation that we have a good environment.

"We do think Jalen loves football. He wants to be great and so we’re excited to get him here and obviously work from there.”

There are few questions surrounding Carter's ability on the gridiron. He arrived at Georgia as a five-star recruit and earned All-American honors this past season, ultimately finishing his college career with six sacks, 18 tackles for loss and 71 quarterback hurries.

But the 22-year-old Carter saw his draft stock fall this spring following multiple driving-related incidents that led to a pair of misdemeanor charges.

In the end, Roseman accepted the risk - much like he did with the decision to move a 2024 fourth-round pick in the trade-up for Carter ... which, once more, connects back to lessons learned since taking over as Philadelphia's general manager in 2010.

"You have to be comfortable with the outcome of, ‘Hey, I traded a fourth-round pick’ and understanding that could be a good player for your team a year from now," Roseman said, "but at the same situation, being OK with not getting the player and who is next.

"That’s not to say we wouldn’t have been okay staying at 10 and taking another player - we just felt for us and our team and where we were that Jalen Carter was the right selection for us.”

The Eagles, of course, are fresh off a trip to the Super Bowl, but want to do one better next February ... and in Roseman's eyes, the risk with Carter is worth the reward.

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You can follow Daniel Flick on Twitter @DFlickDraft

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