PHILADELPHIA – Don’t look now, but a rookie leads the Not that the statistic is the game’s be-all-end-all, as there are still 12 games to go. But right now, the ninth overall selection in the draft, Jalen Carter, is up to 3.5. He decked Los Angeles Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford twice in Sunday’s 23-14 win at SoFi Stadium, the first multi-sack game of his career.
There will be more, no doubt, and what he needs now is a signature sack dance that so many of the great ones seem to have.
Carter played just 39 snaps, one away from tying his career high of 40 set in his professional debut at the New England Patriots. For the season, he has 12 tackles, one forced fumble, and four tackles to go along with his 3.5 sacks.
Carter outplayed Hall of Fame defensive tackle Aaron Donald in Sunday’s win. Donald was held without a sack and in five career games against Philly has yet to notch a sack and is 1-4.
The scary part for Carter is that he is still a work in progress. Just how high his ceiling is isn’t known.
“Phenomenal player who works really hard to continue to get better, and that’s been a phenomenal player through the first five weeks, right and so he’s just got to keep doing it,” said head coach Nick Sirianni on Monday. “We saw that he was a phenomenal player in college, right? He’s had a great first five weeks. We have high hopes for
“He has to keep proving it over and over and over again. Because if you want to be considered in the top part of this league as a football player, it’s about consistency and it’s about doing it year-in and year-out. So, he’s had a good start. He has to continue to put the work in. We know he has the talent.”
Carter still has a way to go to become the best defensive tackle in Eagles history, at least from a sack perspective, during his rookie season, but he is trending that way.
His 91.8 Pro Football Focus grade leads all defensive tackles and his 23 pressures tie Donald for the most in the NFL. He is on pace for 12 sacks.
Corey Simon had 9.5 sacks in his rookie year of 2000 and is followed by Fletcher Cox who had four in 2012. Carter is already tied for third with Jerome Brown (1987) and Mike Patterson (2005).
Carter has the luxury of bettering his craft in practice by learning from Cox and Brandon Graham, and by going against center Jason Kelce and guards Landon Dickerson, Cam Jurgens, and Sua Opeta.
“He’s got great guys to lean on,” said Sirianni. “He’s just got to continue to be on the rise. I think you’ve seen that he’s gotten a little bit better each week.
“We won’t put him in Canton, yet. He’s got to just keep going each and every day and getting better, and it’s about consistency. He’s got the ability to do it. He’s just got to be consistent with it, and that’s by working hard and growing each day.
Ed Kracz:
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