Eagles' Jalen Carter ‘Taking Steady Steps’ as Person & Player

With two NFL Preseason games under his belt, Philadelphia Eagles rookie defensive tackle Jalen Carter is making good progress, according to defensive coordinator Sean Desai.

The Philadelphia Eagles did what some wouldn’t in the first round of the 2023 NFL Draft when they took Georgia Bulldogs defensive tackle Jalen Carter at No. 9 overall.

It turned out that Carter was just one of several Bulldogs getting set to join the Eagles, and he may be the biggest value pick the team made if his play lives up to potential.

And so far, through two preseason games, he’s growing at a pace that makes Philadelphia defensive coordinator Sean Desai pretty happy. 

“I think he keeps growing and taking steady, incremental steps to keep growing and developing as a player and as a person,” Desai said. “[Defensive line] coach [Tracy] Rocker is doing a tremendous job developing that way. We’re continuing to stay on him with the details. He knows that he’s got to keep refining those. I think he’s taking ownership of that and he’s growing.”

Carter got just two snaps with the Eagles defense in his first preseason contest, a 20-19 loss to the Baltimore Ravens. 

It’s not much of a surprise then to find Carter without a tackle in that game, but he did get credited with a quarterback hit. 

Against the Cleveland Browns, Carter got more snaps on defense, but only five more, totaling seven for the game. 

In the matchup against the Browns, Philadelphia got five more reps from Carter and are apparently satisfied with his development so far despite him not appearing in the stat box in Week 2.

Carter is doing some good things in camp, but not much in preseason games. 

That fact, while not as entertaining for Eagle fans making it a point to attend preseason contests don’t get their full value for the price of admission. 

But if his head-turning play in training camp continues into the regular season then we think most Philly fans will be okay with Carter getting limited action in this year’s preseason.

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