Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni revealed on Monday that Jalen Carter was the team’s player of the game against the Saints. For his performance, Carter got a game ball.
No surprise there.
The Eagles’ second-year defensive tackle put together an absolutely dominant performance against the Saints on Sunday in New Orleans.
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“Obviously, this past game was his best game by far,” defensive coordinator Vic Fangio said. “And hopefully that will set the trend moving forward. I don't know what actually triggered it, other than he, and we as a D-Line unit, didn't play good in the previous game. So I'm sure that had something to do with it.”
Carter has an unbelievably high ceiling. The 9th overall pick from the 2023 draft has legitimate All-Pro potential and he flashed it all afternoon at the Superdome on Sunday.
The next step for Carter is finding a way to be consistently dominant.
What’s the key to that?
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“Just keeping him on point on a day-in, day-out basis,” Fangio said. “Not just game day, but practice, also. Because the way you practice, usually, is the way you'll play.”
Carter is still just 23. A couple weeks ago, he was late for a team meeting and was disciplined by the team by way of sitting out the first series of the Falcons game. And on Tuesday, Fangio praised Carter but also pointed out the importance of keeping him focused and making sure he practices hard.
If Carter never becomes an All-Pro, it won’t be for lack of talent.
Against the Saints on Sunday, Carter didn’t get a sack but he filled up the stat sheet with 4 tackles, 2 tackles for loss, 2 batted passes and a quarterback hit.
“I just think he played with better technique and better fundamentals, which came through a better focus,” Fangio said. “And then that led to good effort. And you saw, got some batted balls, pressured the quarterback. When you do the little things right a bunch of times, things start to add up, and you get the plays that everybody wants to see. I just think he was playing with a better mindset and better fundamentals.”
Carter was the highest-graded defensive player in Week 3 by ProFootballFocus, which gave him a grade of 93.5. That’s the second-highest grade of Carter’s career after his Week 3 performance against the Bucs last year. It’s important to remember that Carter was tremendous in the first half of his rookie season before struggling down the stretch in 2023 along with the rest of the defense.
Sunday was just one game — but it was a great one.
Even after Carter’s great game, he was satisfied. In the winning locker room, he again called his play “trash,” the same description he said going into the Week 3 game.
He certainly wasn’t trash.
But it’s probably a good thing if that’s his sincere sentiment. There’s nothing wrong with being your own biggest critic. And, besides, Carter doesn’t need to pat himself on the back. The rest of the organization can tell you how good he was.
“Playing defense is about striking blocks. Playing defense is about shedding blocks. Playing defense is about tackling. Playing defense is all being on the same page,” Sirianni said. You do those things well, you're going to have an opportunity to play good defense. So that's what I saw from Jalen Carter.
“He’d strike, he was violent yesterday with his hands. He was athletic to get off blocks. He beat blocks every way you could possibly imagine. He played on their side of the line of scrimmage an awful lot.
“As a result, he let other people make plays. Not only did he make plays, but he helped other people make plays. There were multiple plays where I felt like our linebackers were running free because they were hanging on the double team of his block for a little bit longer.”
It was a really encouraging performance from Carter. It was the type of game that gave another glimpse into just how special a player he has the potential to be and how important he is to the team's success.
Let’s see if he does it again this week.
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