Eagles' Jalen Carter: 'New-Age Warren Sapp'?

Philadelphia Eagles rookie defensive tackle Jalen Carter is already drawing comparisons to a Hall of Famer.

A generation ago, Warren Sapp and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers ripped the hearts out of Philadelphia Eagles fans, upsetting the team in the final game at Veterans Stadium to move onto Super Bowl XXXVII. 

But after a Monday Night Football win in Tampa, there's beginning to be a feeling that this era of Eagles may have their own Sapp-esque player in the form of rookie Jalen Carter. At least that's what former NFL quarterback and current NBC analyst Chris Simms believes. 

"He's a new-age Warren Sapp to me. That's what I feel like I'm looking at," Simms said. "It's like Warren Sapp evolved 25 years later. He's a little bigger, a little more powerful, and has that athletic ability and bendability. And it's truly -- it's special." 

Jalen Carter (left) and Warren Sapp

Simms -- a third-round pick by the Buccaneers in the 2003 NFL Draft -- missed out on playing with Sapp by a year, as the future Hall of Famer joined the Oakland Raiders after helping lead Tampa Bay to a Super Bowl. Still, he likely heard plenty about the legend of Sapp during his three seasons with the Buccaneers. 

And it's not as though you needed to be teammates with Sapp to appreciate his greatness. During his 13-year career, Sapp terrorized opposing quarterbacks, accumulating 578 combined tackles, 96.5 sacks and 19 forced fumbles.

For Carter to be drawing that comparison after playing in three professional games gives you an idea of how impressive the No. 9 overall pick has been relative even to NFL veterans. The former Georgia Bulldog already has two forced fumbles, two tackles for loss, two quarterback hits and 1.5 sacks, even as he shares time on one of the league's elite defensive lines. 

Off-the-field concerns obviously caused Carter to drop into a range where he could be taken by the Eagles, and it will likely take years of laying low during his free time to alleviate those. But it certainly does feel like an already-stacked Eagles team may have had the chips fall in just the right way to land a future legend in Carter.