Eagles defensive tackle Jalen Carter is the most gifted player on the Philadelphia defense and the runner-up isn’t exactly breathing down the emerging second-year star’s neck.
Offensive-minded Green Bay head coach Matt LaFleur’s description of the former Georgia star is a good template for what the rest of the league thinks about Carter.
“He’s a freak. He’s a freakshow,” LaFleur said of the player he almost assuredly started thinking about first when it came to game planning for Friday night’s season opener in Sao Paulo, Brazil between the Eagles and Packers.
“He can do it in the run game, he can do it in the pass game,” said LaFleur. “Freak is a term of endearment. But he’s an elite-level athlete. He can do anything out there on the field. I think he’s going to keep improving and he’ll be — if he’s not already — one of the premier defensive linemen in the league.”
In-house, Eagles’ defensive coordinator Vic Fangio is building the foundation of his defense on Carter, 23, and his teammate dating back to college, Jordan Davis. However, the veteran coach is trying to play it cool with Carter to make sure the Florida native lives up to his massive potential.
“You know, I think we'll get a better barometer of that after this game,” Fangio told Philadelphia Eagles on SI when asked where Carter is in his development. “He only, I think, played three plays in the opening preseason game. Practice is practice.
“I think I'll be better able to answer that in a couple weeks.”
“Freak” vs. “we’ll get a better barometer” is a pretty stark contrast but Carter isn’t put off by Fangio’s blunt, old-school coaching style which does not hand out gold stars for potential.
Fangio understands Carter’s ceiling as a player. Now it’s about reaching it.
“I like him,” Carter told Philadelphia Eagles on SI when asked about Fangio. “He's an old-school coach and I don't know if you know but in high school in Apopka, Fla. we had an old-school style, wing-T and all that so this is stuff I'm used to. I've had difficult coaching at every level so I'm used to it."
