Carter's lofty Rookie of Year goal backed by hard work this offseason

When asked about goals for his rookie season, first-round pick Jalen Carter didn’t mince his words.

He’s aiming high.

“Yeah, I want to be Defensive Rookie of the Year,” Carter said on Friday. “I had a lot of goals. It changes every day, but the main goal is Defensive Rookie of the Year.”

The last defensive tackle to win Defensive Rookie of the Year was Aaron Donald back in 2014 so it doesn’t happen often. But there’s no reason to doubt Carter. The ninth overall pick is incredibly talented, in a great situation and he’s already off to a great start.

Sure, we’re just a couple days into training camp and the pads haven’t even come out yet … but Carter is already turning some heads. Even after just one day.

“We’re talking about him,” center Jason Kelce said. “I’ll be interested to look at the tape and see what it looks like and continue to watch him. It’s the first day so you try not to make … do not make first impressions the end all be all. The mark in this league is consistency.”

Sure. But Carter, 22, has flashed early in camp and that wouldn’t be possible had he returned to the NovaCare Complex out of shape. Head coach Nick Sirianni was pleased to announce on Wednesday that every player passed the conditioning test upon the Eagles’ arrival to camp and that included Carter.

It’s especially notable in Carter’s case, though, because — right or wrong — there was a lot of talk during the pre-draft process about his poor performance at the Georgia pro day. That he looked gassed, out of shape.

“I didn’t hear much about that,” Carter said. “But I passed my conditioning test so I think my conditioning level is good.”

A lot of work went into that.

After the Eagles broke for the summer, Carter returned to his home state of Florida and called Hunter Wood of The Athlete Factory near Orlando. Wood once ran the strength program at Apopka High School early in Carter’s high school career but hadn’t worked with him since.

For four days per week during the summer, all the way up until the Thursday before training camp began, Wood helped Carter prepare for his rookie season.

“Orlando is like a zillion degrees,” Wood said to NBC Sports Philadelphia by phone on Friday afternoon. “If you can run in this, you can run in anything.”

That came in handy on a steamy day at Eagles training camp on Friday. Carter was ready.

During the summer in Florida, Carter typically worked out Monday through Thursday, with sessions normally beginning around 8:30-9 a.m. Two days outside, running and doing field work; two days inside and in the weight room.

Football is now a job for Carter. And he’s treating it like one.

“I think he’s obviously pretty motivated, super motivated right now,” Wood said. “I think he’s got some big goals ahead of him. He seemed like he was ready to go to me. There wasn’t a lot from my end, trying to push him and prod him. Nothing more than the typical coaching, get through tough things, that you have to do when you’re coaching athletes. 

“But from my standpoint, you could tell that he’s super motivated, ready to go. And he has some big goals out in front of him and I think he’s ready to go and chase them down and get those things.”

Whenever Wood works with a professional athlete, he asks what the player wants to work on and he asks what the team wants. Then he creates a plan accordingly to target specific areas.

One area of focus for Carter this summer was hips and core strength. That’s such an important element of defensive line play in the NFL with the amount of torque needed inside, Wood explained. So, understanding what it takes to play D-line in the NFL, they spent a ton of time on core development and different planes of motion.

“He’s already obviously very powerful and quick and those type of things but we did try to make sure that he’s super explosive coming into camp,” Wood said. “He’s super fast. So continue to develop those types of things and the biggest thing was to make sure he was in shape coming back. Obviously, we wanted to make sure he put his best foot forward when he got back to camp. He showed up in shape, ready to go.”

If you spend any time talking to folks who have been around Carter, you start hearing about some impressive athletic feats, dating all the way back to his high school career.

Wood offered up one from this summer.

They were laser-timing 10-yard sprints because get-off is an important trait for pass-rushers in the NFL. According to Wood, Carter ran four consecutive 10-yard sprints all under 1.6 seconds, topping out at 1.569 seconds. That’s pretty incredible for a defensive lineman who is well over 300 pounds.

“He’s gifted, obviously,” Wood said. “But that was like, ‘holy cow!’”

To put those times into perspective, the fastest 10-yard split for a defensive tackle at the Combine this offseason was 1.64 seconds from Pittsburgh’s Calijah Kancey and the next closest was Clemson’s Bryan Bresee at 1.71 seconds. There were six receivers at this year’s Combine who ran a 1.57 or slower and none of them were anywhere near 300 pounds.

After a ton of work this offseason, Carter has kept it up since getting back to Philly.

The Eagles’ practices are shorter and less exhausting than the practices Carter went through at Georgia. So there’s a lot more on his shoulders as an individual to put the work in. Defensive coordinator Sean Desai said Carter has learned how to be a pro.

“He knows what it is in terms of the preparation for your mind and your body, off the field, in the weight room, in the training room, all that stuff,” Desai said. “He's embracing it and learning it, and he's doing a great job.”

Carter has also embraced many of the bells and whistles the NovaCare Complex has to offer to aid his body development and recovery. He works on his conditioning after every practice and has even started to utilize cryotherapy.

After a few months with Desai’s playbook in hand, Carter agreed that this defense suits his strengths. 

“Coach [Tracy Rocker] wants us to fire off the ball,” Carter said. “And that’s something I like to do.”

Add all that to his natural ability and then a Defensive Rookie of the Year season doesn’t seem all that far-fetched.

When asked what it’ll take to accomplish that goal, Carter said he just needs to keep listening to his veteran teammates like Fletcher Cox and Brandon Graham.

“He’s got some big goals ahead of him,” Wood said, “but I think he’s more than willing and able to accomplish whatever he sets out to do this year.”

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