Jalen Carter‘s troubling pre-draft process reportedly led some teams to completely remove the Georgia defensive lineman from their draft boards.. Carter is unlikely to climb back into the top-four, but his draft stock may not have taken as big of a hit as initially anticipated. Adam Caplan of ProFootballNetwork.com writes that teams still have the defensive tackle as the top-graded player on their draft boards.
Carter will not face jail time in connection with the misdemeanor charges he faced after two members of Georgia’s football program, offensive lineman Devin Willock and recruiting analyst Chandler LeCroy, died in car accident. Further, the defensive lineman had a weak pro day, but it sounds like the prospect did some work to repair his image during his private workouts with NFL teams.
Sources told Tashan Reed of The Athletic that Carter remains atop the Raiders draft board. While the organization is aware of “how drafting Carter could garner a negative reaction” following Henry Ruggs‘ fatal DUI felony charge, the front office has also done their due diligence on the prospect.
“We looked at Jalen like every other player that’s in the draft,” Raiders GM Dave Ziegler said. “I don’t think we want to cheat the process with any prospect in that regard. We want to hit those bases for each individual prospect. And, of course, on some prospects it’s deeper; there’s just more things to look at and more things to consider based on their situation. Jalen, in that regard, was similar to a lot of players in the draft and we feel very comfortable with the work that we’ve done on him.”
Lions general manager Brad Holmes shared a similar sentiment about Carter. While the executive didn’t elaborate as much as Ziegler, he did acknowledge that the front office “felt better” about the lineman following his in-person visit (per NFL Network’s James Palmer on Twitter).
Carter’s agent declared no visits to teams without a top-10 pick would take place, putting the Lions (No. 6) and Raiders (No. 7) in prime position to select the Georgia product without making a trade. In addition to those two organizations, Carter has also visited with the Seahawks (No. 5), Falcons (No. 8), Bears (No. 9) and Eagles (No. 10).
He’s going in the top 10, and everyone will have forgotten about his driving in a year.
Including the family’s of Devin Willock and Chandler LeCroy, huh?
Unfortunately, they were probably more at fault regarding the situation. The families can’t just blame Carter. In the end, I’m a year it probably will be forgotten
I missed the part where Carter caused the accident.
Carter didn’t kill them. Don’t be a drama queen.
Who was operating the crashed vehicle? That’s right, it was Ms. LeCroy’s fault.
Chandler had a few speeding tickets for 20+ over the speed limit and was almost .20 BAC.
link to fox5atlanta.com
No we won’t forget, 2 lives gone because of his reckless behavior. It’s time to start punishing these behaviors and not go easy on them because they play in the NFL. Any other person would be looking at a lengthy prison sentence for a tragedy like that. He isn’t owed anything and shouldn’t be allowed to play until this matter is resolved. He played with lives and lost. He’s not worthy.
Carter doesn’t play in the NFL, he wasn’t driving the car either. Who is “we”?
It’ll be a risk for anybody drafting him. As troubling as his brush with the law and death of others with him is- His showing up out of shape to his pro day with his draft status in jeopardy, showed he still apparently didn’t seem to understand the gravity of the situation. Maybe the individual workouts have been better, but you can’t take what team execs say as gospel this close to the draft. We can talk about it in a year.
Some players intentionally show up to their pro day out of shape or won’t even do a pro day if they don’t want to go to certain teams. Ie- I don’t think anyone wants to play for teams starting a rebuild like CHI, ARZ, IND, ATL, when they can go to a team that lost the SB 38-35, and had 2 of his UGA friends & teammates (J.Davis & N.Dean) that were drafted last year.
Maybe for free agent vets who actually have a choice, but rookies? It’s all about the money. And there’s no agent alive that would let his player intentionally slack off on his college’s pro day- which is in front of all teams- including the winners.
when they can go to a team that lost the SB 38-35
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Two things wrong with that.
1-He’s not dropping to #10
2-He’s not tanking so that he can get the salary of a #10 pick as opposed to the salary of a #5 pick.
The worst possible team he can go to would be the Raiders with their history and I’m not only talking about Ruggs.
Chandler Lecroy, the young blonde Georgia uses to recruit football players, was a drunk driver who killed Devin Willock. Jalen Carter didn’t cause that.
She was cute too bad she’s gone
They fired a Colorado Head Coach for using “recruiting coordinators”. Guess that’s no longer a thing…
Now I realize that football players are not as a general rule the sharpest tacks in the box (see Jackson, Lamar), but did this genius really just equate his role in the deaths of two people to some elementary school transgression?
We all did stupid stuff when we were younger. I get that. Leaving an accident when someone’s life was in peril was not a lack of judgment, it was a lack of conscience. I would never draft the guy. I do not care how talented he is.
And then lying about it, just speaks to a complete lack of character. I doubt he’ll ever get into trouble again but he’d be completely off my board if I was a GM. Low character guys are bad for the locker room.
They feel better after talking to him? You know darn well his agent coached him what to say and it could be total crap. I hope teams pay more attention to the police report than what he said. These teams will overlook anything if they think the player is good enough.
I’m the minority here but I would love to him to fall to my Eagles at #10. If not, I hope we take Bijan at 10
Any man in this chat (for the most part) has pulled next to another car and hit the gas hard in his youth! He did not cause the crash of the other vehicle. People are so dang quick to pass judgements these days! He made a mistake that he will pay for and that has nothing to do with his football skills. As a diehard Lions fan, I’m hoping he’s picked #6 overall Thursday.
He kept driving after his friends had a horrible crash. He didn’t stop to help or call 911. He thought more about his own job future than lives lost so he’s off my board. Wouldn’t surprise me if his first nfl car hits 180 mph
I hope the Lions go with either Witherspoon or Wilson at 6. Not really sold on Carter.