Overview

Position: LB

College: Clemson

Class: Senior

Age: 22

 

Measurables

Height: 6’0 1/8”

Weight: 231 lbs.

Arm length: 32 1/8”

Hand size: 9 1/4″

 

Athletic testing

40-yard dash: N/A

10-yard split: N/A

Vertical jump: 34.5”

Broad jump: 116.0”

Bench press: N/A

3-cone drill: N/A

Short shuttle: 4.41 sec.

 

Strengths

Solid build and good length for his size. Excellent athleticism and quickness. Exceptional speed to the sideline. Great play recognition. Innate vision and awareness. Active feet and ready to move as a run defender. Keeps a balanced foundation strafing to shadow running backs early in runs. Strong and reliable wrap-up tackler in the hole. Breaks down very effectively to tackle while pursuing into the backfield. Takes a direct path to meet ball-carriers in the rushing lane and breaks down to tackle. Great agility to get past blockers while going downhill. Quick to prevent blockers from connecting towards the sideline. Will get into position to get outside contain and force runs back inside. Patient and disciplined as a backside defender. Exceptional burst as a blitzer. Fast and aggressive closing as a delayed blitzer. Saw plenty of snaps lined up on the edge of the tackle box along the line of scrimmage. Effective pinching down to tackle in the backfield. Has aligned as a pure edge. Good quickness and smoothness when used on stunts. Excellent fluidity dropping in coverage. Extremely smooth in cover transitions. Impressive recognition versus route combinations. Jumps on tight ends on hitch routes as a zone defender. Complete skillset to match tight ends. Quick to blanket running backs and tight ends in the flat. Very good feet reacting to route breaks in man coverage. Terrific overall reaction time in man coverage. Does an outstanding job matching route breaks. Comfortable running with opponents down the field in coverage. Showed he can stick with slot receivers underneath. Athletic jumping for deflections in the passing lane. Seemed to play faster next to Jeremiah Trotter Jr. in 2023.

 

Weaknesses

Below-average height. Sometimes seems to guess and go based on blocking design and choose to wrong gap. Can get shoved back and shielded off by bigger offensive linemen. Had a difficult time not getting blocked and sealed by standout Texas offensive tackle Kelvin Banks Jr. (2024). Pushed around some by the talented offensive tackles for Texas in general (2024). Would like to see more relentless pursuit getting to the action from the opposite side of the field. Could be better not allowing separation when contacted.

 

NFL comparison

Christian Harris

 

Conclusion

Overall, Carter is a well-rounded defender with impressive athleticism, quickness, effectiveness as a tackler, and cover ability. He has the skillset to thrive in a variety of roles as an off-ball linebacker and should be a target in the middle of Day 2.

 

Big Board ranking: #67 | Positional ranking: #3