Jalen Carter knows the names.<\/p>\n
As the Eagles\u2019 immensely talented defensive star enters his third NFL season in 2025, he knows which players are considered to be the best defensive tackles in the league.<\/p>\n
He also knows that his name has started to enter the conversation.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know who\u2019s good and I know who everybody loves,\u201d Carter said this week at OTAs. \u201cDexter Lawrence, Chris Jones. All of them. I see it, but at the end of the day, I\u2019m still grinding and just doing my own thing. If my name pops up, then I guess congratulations to me. Just keep going.\u201d<\/p>\n
Carter, 24, is just scratching the surface of his immense potential. In 2024, Carter was named to his first Pro Bowl and was named an Associated Press second-team All-Pro.<\/p>\n
The first-team All-Pros last year were Jones and Cameron Heyward, while Carter and Zach Allen were named to the second team. Lawerence likely would have made that list but he was limited to just 12 games in 2024 and still managed to have nine sacks.<\/p>\n
But you get the idea.\u00a0<\/p>\n
There\u2019s a short list of the best defensive tackles in the NFL and Carter is climbing it. Quickly.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is what I wanted to do,\u201d Carter said. \u201cI wanted to be the best at what I do, try to be the best. I\u2019m not there yet. I still got a lot of people in front of me that\u2019s obviously been in the league a couple (more) years, got years of experience on me. But I\u2019m just going to keep grinding every day. Not just me by myself working on specific things to get better, just being around the team having the guys support me also makes me also be one of the best in the league.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Eagles drafted Carter with the No. 9 overall pick out of Georgia back in 2023 and from the moment he stepped foot in Philadelphia, his teammates saw something special in Carter. His first two seasons in the NFL have done nothing to quell that excitement inside the NovaCare Complex.<\/p>\n
Fangio on Tuesday was asked for his thoughts on something Eagles legend Jeremiah Trotter said on WIP recently, that Carter still doesn\u2019t even really know how to play the position yet. And while there might be some hyperbole involved in that description, Fangio agreed with the overall point.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe good news about Jalen is twofold,\u201d Fangio said. \u201cOne, he played very well for us last year, and two, he can still improve a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n
If you want to really know what Fangio thinks of Carter, you don\u2019t have to listen to him speak. His actions are much louder. Fangio is obviously in charge of defensive personnel and Carter played 84% of the Eagles\u2019 defensive snaps in the regular season last year (not including Week 18, when the starters rested) and that jumped up to 88% in the playoffs, even with the two lopsided wins in the NFC Championship Game and the Super Bowl.<\/p>\n
All together, Carter played 1,068 snaps last year \u2014 more than any defensive tackle in the NFL.<\/p>\n
That workload isn\u2019t going to change in 2025.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe’s still a young pup,\u201d Fangio said.<\/p>\n
Last offseason, Carter talked constantly about his conditioning level. He clearly knew Fangio was going to call on him to play a ton in 2024 and he was right. NFL snap count data goes back to 2012 and Carter played more snaps last year than any Eagles defensive lineman in a single season in that span.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt looked like I was having fun, right?\u201d Carter said. \u201cI was having fun out there. Shoot, if I could play every down, I would love it. If I gotta get out because I need a break or something, I know the next guy gonna come in and step up for me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Carter\u2019s numbers weren\u2019t gaudy in 2024, but they were still impressive. He finished the regular season with 4 1\/2 sacks, 12 tackles for loss, 16 quarterback hits, 2 forced fumbles and 6 batted passes, all while getting double-teamed at an increasingly high rate.<\/p>\n
While the Associated All-Pro voters named Carter to the second team, it\u2019s telling that he was named to the first team by players in the NFLPA all-pro team, where players vote for the best player at their position and the positions they line up against. Carter and Jones got the most votes at defensive tackle.<\/p>\n
So maybe most people don\u2019t consider Carter to be the best defensive tackle in the NFL just yet, but the point is that he\u2019s close as he enters his third NFL season. And if he keeps improving \u2014 and there is room for growth \u2014 it won\u2019t be long before there\u2019s no doubt about his place among the best in the league.<\/p>\n
What will it take for Carter to make it to the very top of that list?<\/p>\n
\u201cJust keep winning,\u201d Carter said. \u201cKeep winning 1-on-1s, double-teams, making an impact in the game and doing what I did last year but even better.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jalen Carter knows the names. As the Eagles\u2019 immensely talented defensive star enters his third NFL season in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":108492,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2068],"tags":[25,4904,7,6,242,109,2476],"class_list":{"0":"post-108491","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-philadelphia-eagles","8":"tag-eagles","9":"tag-eagles-blog","10":"tag-football","11":"tag-nfl","12":"tag-philadelphia","13":"tag-philadelphia-eagles","14":"tag-philadelphiaeagles"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/114636325192942318","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108491","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=108491"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108491\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/108492"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=108491"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=108491"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=108491"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}