When the NFL regular season finally comes to an end, we’re going to see a bevy of honors for the Philadelphia Eagles come rolling in, with the defensive side of the ball sure to have a banner year.
One of those defensive stars is now even being considered a possible candidate for NFL Defensive Player of the Year in defensive tackle Jalen Carter, who has made the leap to becoming one of the NFL’s elite defenders in just his second season.
ESPN’s Dan Graziano and Jeremy Fowler both singled out Carter as a “sleeper” candidate for the NFL’s top defensive honor with the Eagles sitting at 12-2 and on a 10-game winning streak.
“My favorite sleeper whose name is starting to come up among the top defensive players in the league is the Eagles’ Jalen Carter,” Graziano wrote. “It’s probably too soon for him to win it this season, but I wouldn’t be surprised if he became a fixture in these discussions in future seasons, maybe as early as next year.”
Carter has been virtually unblockable in 2024 with 39 tackles, 4.5 sacks, 12 TFL, 15 QB hits, 5 pass deflections and 1 forced fumble.
“Carter is a great call,” Fowler wrote. “He gets constant double-teams and fights through holding plays that aren’t called. The Eagles have dozens of examples of that. When you get underofficiated, that means you’re a disruptor in the middle.”
Carter Once Projected as No. 1 Overall Pick
Carter, 6-foot-3 and 314 pounds, had a direct path to NFL stardom laid out for him just 2 years ago — one that almost got taken away from him entirely because of an off-the-field incident.
In 3 seasons at the University of Georgia, Carter was a 2-time All-SEC pick and unanimous All-American as the Bulldogs went 37-3 and won back-to-back College Football Playoff national championships in his final 2 seasons in 2021 and 2022.
After being projected as the No. 1 overall pick in the draft following the 2022 season, Carter was involved in an incident on January 15, 2023, in which a Georgia staffer, Chandler LeCroy, and one of Carter’s teammates, Devin Willock, were both killed in an auto accident while racing Carter’s vehicle, with speeds exceeding 100 miles per hour.
Carter eventually pled no contest to reckless driving and street racing and his draft stock took a hit, sending him plummeting to the Eagles at No. 9 overall in the 2023 NFL draft.
In an up-and-down rookie season, Carter played in 16 games but made just 1 start and finished with 33 tackles, 6.0 sacks, 8 TFL and 9 QB hits while still making the PFWAA All-Rookie Team.
Template Laid Out for DT to Win Defensive POY
We don’t have to look far into the past to see what the markers are for an interior defensive lineman to win NFL Defensive Player of the Year — former Los Angeles Rams defensive tackle Aaron Donald won the award 3 times in his 10-year career.
Donald, who retired following the 2023 season, won NFL Defensive POY in 2017, 2018 and 2020 and a closer look at his numbers from those years shows Carter still has quite a bit of work to do.
In the 3 seasons in which he won NFL Defensive POY, Arnold averaged 48.3 tackles, 15.0 sacks, 18 TFL, 32 QB hits and 4.3 forced fumbles — reflective of a player considered perhaps the greatest interior defensive lineman in NFL history.
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