Jalen Carter has impressive rookie debut for Eagles vs. New England Patriots

Throughout the preseason, former Georgia star Jalen Carter has shown that he’s going to be a nightmare to block in the National Football League. It’s been a painful sight to see for all the teams that passed on him in the 2023 NFL Draft. On Sunday, in his rookie regular season debut vs. the New England Patriots, he continued to dominate. Carter racked up six pressures and a sack on 32 pass rushes, per Next Gen Stats. He tied for the most pressures by any rookie defensive tackle in a game over the last five seasons.

Jalen Carter got even stronger throughout the course of training camp, if you can believe that. The Philadelphia Eagles’ No. 9 overall pick out of Georgia said that was his biggest improvement so far with the regular season around the corner.

Carter, along with Georgia teammate Nolan Smith, the No. 30 overall pick, raised a lot of eyebrows this summer with their NFL-readiness. It really showed out in two preseason games.

But Carter is really starting to bully other offensive linemen in the league, at least in a small sample size. He credited it to using his strength first.

“My strength,” Carter said via NBC Sports Philadelphia. “Just firing off the ball and using my strength first. Coming out of college, I was using a lot of finesse and all that. Now, I’m bringing it back to my strength and my power. Because you use strength and then you surprise them with finesse. And now they don’t know what’s coming next.”

Over the course of two preseason games, Carter played just two and seven snaps. The Eagles pretty much saw enough and “he’s ready,” to an extent.

If he shows those elite flashes consistently as a rookie, the Eagles could have yet another dominant defensive lineman as they work towards a Super Bowl title.

“I just think he keeps growing and taking steady, incremental steps to keep growing and developing as a player and as a person,” defensive coordinator Sean Desai said. “Coach Rocker is doing a tremendous job developing that way. We’re continuing to stay on him with the details. He knows that he’s got to keep refining those. I think he’s taking ownership of that and he’s growing.”

Carter seems to be on track to be an immediate impact player.

In 13 games at Georgia last season, Carter finished with 32 total tackles, 16 solo tackles, seven tackles for loss, three sacks, three pass deflections and two forced fumbles. Over the course of his career, Carter had 83 total tackles, 44 solo tackles, 18.5 tackles for loss, six sacks, four pass deflections and two forced fumbles.

As a member of the Class of 2020, Carter was a five-star recruit out of Apopka (Fla.) High, according to the On3 Industry Ranking, a weighted average that utilizes all four major recruiting media companies. He was the No. 2 overall prospect in the state, the No. 4 defensive lineman in the class and the No. 14 overall prospect in the class.

On3’s Nick Kosko also contributed to this article.