Jalen Carter was the runner-up for the NFL’s Defensive Rookie of the Year award, and he’ll have some say in several awards scenarios as we advance after Fletcher Cox and Aaron Donald both retired.
Carter’s dynamic rookie season vaulted the Eagles’ second-year defensive tackle into Pro Football Focus’s top 50 NFL players of 2024 list.
Carter is the only 2023 rookie to make the list.
41. DI JALEN CARTER, PHILADELPHIA EAGLES
For the first several weeks of the 2023 season — his rookie season — Jalen Carter was grading and producing like future Hall-of-Famer Aaron Donald. That level was perhaps inevitably unsustainable, but even so, he finished his debut season with an 89.0 PFF overall grade, ranking fifth in the NFL. Carter has the talent to be at the very top of this list. Only players like Donald have showcased that kind of instant impact at the position over the past decade or so.
During the first half of the 2023 season, Carter played 49% of the defensive snaps (despite missing Week 6 against the New York Jets with an injury), second among Eagles defensive tackles behind only Fletcher Cox.
Carter finished his rookie year with 6.0 sacks, 33 tackles, two forced fumbles, and one fumble recovery (which he returned for a touchdown) in 16 regular-season games.
Through the first nine weeks of 2023, Carter generated 29 pressures (tied for eighth in the league among interior defensive linemen), according to Pro Football Focus, including four sacks and 20 hurries.