First Round Mock NFL Draft Analyst Ken Becks studied Georgia’s Jalen Carter on game film and walked away saying he’s not a top-10 pick.

#88 Jalen Carter

POSITION: Defensive Tackle (DT)
SCHOOL: Georgia
HEIGHT: 6-3
WEIGHT: 300

Evaluated Games:

Oregon ’22

Tennessee ’22

Florida ’22

Strengths

Carter possesses the ideal measurables for the DT position, and he excels playing inside.

This big man is active and he consistently penetrating the opposing team’s interior area.

His first step out of his stance is explosive, and this allows him to quickly get into blockers at the point of attack, while limiting their reaction time. This often results in immediate penetration.

It’s all about disrupting the pocket in today’s NFL – – and that’s what Carter brings to the table.

Due to his quickness off the snap, and short-area explosion on contact, he delivers such an impact on first contact versus blockers. This normally provides him with the all-important balance/leverage advantage over his opponents.

Carter additionally possesses good natural strength in his arms, which keeps blockers at a distance as he establishes his pathway to the ball.

While pass rushing, he displays a swift and effective swim move versus blockers in his arsenal of technical talents.

…Don’t fall asleep on him on running plays either.

Carter can be a menace to opposing team’s running attacks. With his combination of natural lower strength and balance, it makes it difficult to move him out inside the hashes.

Once he gets his hands on running backs, their momentum is frequently stopped and taken down at the point of attack.

As an interior defensive lineman – – one area of his game that may go unnoticed is his willingness he shows to pursue ball carriers well outside his primary area of responsibility (sometimes many yards downfield).

Weaknesses

Carter looks a lot more like a pocket pusher than a pure sack artist

Whether he has his hand down in the dirt, or he is lining up off the edge in stand-up mode, he lacks the overall skill to be considered a consistent finisher registering sacks (6 total sacks in 35 games spanning three college football seasons).

As heralded as Carter is, he doesn’t require to be double teamed as often as his press clippings might suggest.

This drops his evaluation and his draft value in my eyes.

He will need to clean up one area of his game for sure moving forward into the NFL, and that is he comes out of his stance a bit too high. Coming out of his stance too high can provide blockers with more access to his body, allowing them to place hands on him slowing down his momentum and cutting down on his overall effectiveness.

2023 NFL Draft Prospect Value

First-Round (No. 12 overall)

Scouting Report Summary

A talented big man who will be hard to deal with at the next level.

Carter will be an excellent addition to any defense in the NFL despite his lack of skill to finish on quarterback sacks, which drops him out of the top-10 conversation for me

Ken Becks [TheScout] has been covering & scouting NFL prospects for over 30 years! Ken has worked with the Indoor Football Scouting Bureau and he’s been mentioned in publications such as Scout.com, ABCNews.com, and TheNewsStar.com. He covers the NFL Draft for FirstRoundMock.com and he is the founder and Director of 1stDownScouting.com. Follow him @1stdown_scout on Twitter.