Jalen Carter vs. Will Anderson... who do scouts prefer?
In Part II of his first look at the best prospects in the NFL Draft, our Bob McGinn examines 26 on defense where the Georgia defensive tackle is this year's great debate. Is he a risk?
Miss Part I of Bob McGinn’s first look at the 2023 NFL Draft? Hear how NFL personnel men view the best offensive players right here, from Bryce Young to C.J. Stroud to Anthony Richardson.
National Football League executives relish the years when their rewards for forgettable seasons are truly dominant players on the defensive side of the ball awaiting them at or very near the top of the draft.
You know, the can’t miss prospects from the past 15 drafts such as defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh, No. 2, 2010; edge rusher Von Miller, No. 2, 2011; edge rusher Khalil Mack, No. 4, 2014; edge rusher Joey Bosa, No. 3, and cornerback Jalen Ramsey, No. 5, 2016; edge rusher Myles Garrett, No. 1, 2017; edge rusher Nick Bosa, No. 2, 2019, and edge rusher Chase Young, No. 2, 2020.
Every one of those eight players turned out to be as good if not better than advertised.
What the personnel men ruefully remembered were the draft classes in which the first defender selected turned out to a disappointment or even a bust. Those names included defensive end Tyson Jackson, No. 3, 2009; edge rusher Dion Jordan, No. 3, 2013, and edge rusher Dante Fowler, No. 3, 2015.
Which leads us to 2023, a draft in which most but not all of the teams owning a top-5 selection are eyeing a quarterback. At some point, however, a defensive player will be taken, and when he does there will exist considerable consternation about the merits of that player.
“You’ve got to pick somebody,” one executive said last week. “That’s what teams are going to do. Try to make the most of it.
“But this is scary. People are just making guys up. If I was picking up there I’d be scared to death of these guys. This class is awful.”
Defensive lineman Jalen Carter of Georgia and edge rusher Will Anderson of Alabama are the top-rated defensive players on some team draft boards.
“They’re OK,” one scout said. “Carter’s a Pro Bowl talent but he disappears a lot, I question his stamina and he gets washed around a lot in there … Anderson is a nice little try-hard. And they’ll be two of the top three picks in the draft?”
Carter’s prospects absorbed a jolt last week when police in Athens, Ga., booked him on misdemeanor charges of reckless driving and racing after an incident in January. Carter initially misled police, who later concluded that he was racing his car at speeds of over 100 mph before the car he was attempting to outdistance crashed, killing a Georgia staffer and one of his teammates. Two others were injured. Also, in September, he was ticketed for driving 89 mph in a 45 mph zone.
Would Carter, who declined to work out at the NFL combine last week, be removed from consideration by some teams?
“One or two, and those would be the ones that are picking down and know they have no chance, anyway,” an executive said. “Nobody really cares. You know how the NFL is. It’s a misdemeanor. I do not think it will affect him too much.
“That team that takes him will come out in the opening press conference and say, ‘We did all the work on him. We had our security, we had our this and that.’ Mark my words. He’s going to be just fine.”
The following is an early guess at the 26 defensive players that will fall among the first 55 players drafted. Earlier in the week, the top 29 offensive players were listed.
This projected top-55 will lead to my NFL Draft Series, which I’ve been assembling annually since 1985. That nine-part series can be found only at GoLongTD.com. It will begin about 10 days before the draft, which is scheduled April 27-29.
The interviews for the projected top-55 were conducted between Feb. 16 and March 3. My rankings were influenced to an extent by workouts at the combine, which started March 2 and finished March 5. All the remarks were made by the handful of participating scouts before the combine workouts; they were judging players off tape and live exposure, not workouts.
These rankings can and will change substantially over the next seven weeks primarily after pro days as teams obtain missing 40-yard dash times, testing results, medical information and additional data. Heights were rounded to the nearest half-inch; quarter-inch measurements were rounded down (6-2 ¼ to 6-2, 6-2 ¾ to 6-2 ½). Players were ranked in order within each position.
To get all of Bob McGinn’s signature content, we’d love to have you join our community as a paid subscriber. Once you upgrade, be sure to review the 2022 draft series:
DEFENSE (26)
Defensive line (5)
Jalen Carter, Georgia (6-3, 314): Third-year junior, one-year starter. “What makes him unique is the position,” said one scout. “Everybody wants to find that dominant 3-technique. When he wants to, no one can block this guy, either in the run or the pass. It’s just, is he going to do it all the time? He’s a difference-maker.”
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