Jalen Carter could earn No. 1 draft spot with strong combine showing
FLOWERY BRANCH — For the second year in a row, Georgia could produce the No. 1 overall NFL draft pick with a good showing at the NFL Scouting Combine.
Last season, Travon Walker was considered a top prospect and went on to be selected No. 1 overall by Jacksonville after a strong showing in Indianapolis.
Defensive lineman Jalen Carter will have a chance to land the top spot in 2023 with solid interviews for NFL teams. He doesn’t plan to workout at the combine, but will workout at Georgia’s Pro Day on March 15.
The combine starts on Tuesday and run through Monday. The NFL draft is April 27-29 in Kansas City with the Chicago Bears currently holding the No. 1 overall pick.
The Falcons, who have a top 10 pick for the third consecutive year, are slated to pick eighth overall. If they have any hopes of pairing Carter with defensive tackle Grady Jarrett, the Falcons will have to trade up.
“I think Jalen Carter is the best player in the draft,” NFL draft analyst Daniel Jeremiah said in virtual call with reporters on Friday. “I think that Will Anderson is the second-best player.”
Carter, who’s 6-foot-3 and 310 pounds, played 35 games for the Bulldogs and had 83 tackles, 18.5 tackles for loss and six sacks and he helped them win back-toback national championships.
“In terms of Carter as a player, it’s overused, I guess, but I don’t know how else to describe him,” Jeremiah said. “He is just a freak show when you are watching him.”
Men of Carter’s size are rarely as nimble, fast and as athletic.
“It just looks like he works at a different speed than everybody else on the field,” Jeremiah said. “The change of direction…he can kind of teleport from one gap to the next and you are, like, I don’t know how he got there.”
Anderson, who played at Dutchtown High before Alabama, is one of the top edge rushers in this class.
Anderson, who’s 6-foot-4, 243 pounds, has the potential to be an elite pass rushers in the NFL. He had an FBShigh 34.5 tackles for loss and 17.5 sacks as a sophomore. He had 10 sacks and 17 tackles for loss last season and won second consecutive SEC defensive player of the year award.
Texas Tech defensive end Tyree Wilson, who’s 6-foot-6 and 275 pounds, is also considered one of the top pass rushers set to attend the combine.
“I think there’s a lot of buzz (about) him around the league,” Jeremiah said. “I think the league has it with him and Anderson a lot closer than people might think. He’s got just freakish wingspan and burst. He has the ability to kind of use those long (arms) to get (sacks).”
Georgia has 12 players set to participate, second only to Alabama’s 13. Georgia Tech has two players, and there are 41 players with connections to Georgia set to participate.
Another intriguing prospect from Georgia is massive tight end Darnell Washington, who 6-foot-7 and 250 pounds.
“He is like playing with a sixth offensive linemen in the run game, and he is still developing and learning in the pass game,” Jeremiah said. “I think there’s more there. Obviously, they had the best tight end in the country there with (Brock) Bowers, who is just an absolute freak show. So, he (didn’t) get as many balls as he would on other offenses, but he is really intriguing.”
Clemson tight end Davis Allen, who played at Calhoun High, and Purdue tight end Payne Durham, who played at Peachtree Ridge High, are also top NFL prospects.
“You’ve got Davis Allen from Clemson, intriguing,” Jeremiah said. “Payne Durham from Purdue, (Luke) Schoonmaker from Michigan, (Benton) Strange from Penn State, (Josh) Wiley from Cincinnati… It is a really, really good (tight end) group.”
Alabama’s Bryce Young and Ohio State’s C.J. Stroud are considered the top two quarterbacks in the draft, but there is a pre-combine buzz about Florida quarterback Anthony Richardson.
While some teams are queasy about Young’s slight frame (6-0, 194), Richardson (6-4, 231) is the secondrated quarterback for several teams.