By Kyle Golik
I may be wrong twice with this column, but I at least have to come clean about one thing I was wrong about. I was skeptical earlier in the season watching Penn State EDGE Abdul Carter be seemingly absent as he faced relentless double teams, even being triple-teamed at points.
When I approached Carter following the UCLA question, I asked Carter about the relentless double teams, with Carter replying, “I just keep doing my job. If they are doubling me that means they are leaving my teammates one-on-one which I will take all day and they are making sure they win their one-on-one. When I get my one-on-one I am going to win.”
I took it for face value, but my intent behind the question was would Carter be best served returning to linebacker where he would be more free to make plays.
Several weeks later, this is why I write with a keyboard and not coach with a whistle because Carter has learned to not only win his one-on-one’s but has adjusted against better competition to elevate his game as the nation’s top EDGE rusher.
This is written with great respect to Tennessee EDGE James Pearce Jr., who leads the SEC in quarterback pressures at 43 which ranks No. 3 amongst Power 4 EDGE rushers. While Carter trails in total quarterback pressures, Carter has 27 (through Week 10), Carter dwarfs Pearce in tackles for loss (15.5 to 7.5) – Carter leads the Big Ten and all Power 4 defenders in the statistic, as well as claiming a sacks lead (8 to 5.5).
The transition to the EDGE was something at first not in the cards for Carter as Franklin recollected:
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“I remember when we recruited Abdul, I thought he was a defensive end,” Franklin said in February. “And Abdul and his dad were adamant that he was a linebacker. The reality is we just wanted (Carter) in our program and knew he was going to be a really good player wherever he decided to play. But this wasn’t really something from us. This was Abdul, he really wanted to make this move I think for a number of reasons, and we’re excited about it.”
Franklin unveiled Carter on the EDGE for the first time in the Blue-White spring game in April, in a lot of ways it was Franklin’s ability to make up for the missed opportunity he had with Micah Parsons, allowing Carter to flourish off the EDGE to make plays.
Throughout Micah Parsons’ career at Penn State he played primarily as a box defender. When the staff toyed with the idea of Parsons on the EDGE primarily, Parsons put together one of Penn State’s most dominant bowl performances in the Cotton Bowl against Memphis with 14 tackles, two sacks, and two forced fumbles.
Parsons is the perfect comparison for Carter. Carter notched his sixth multi tackle-for-loss game, along with his fifth multi-sack game against Washington, and it was consecutive weeks with multiple sacks. Carter finished with the highest EDGE rusher grade per PFF with 95.3 to go along with his 40% pass rush win rate that led all edge rushers nationally.
His future NFL franchise will utilize Carter in the box and off the edge, considering Carter’s lack of deep experience at the edge playing both roles in year one. This will allow Carter to develop his pass rush arsenal and gain experience combating offensive lineman amongst other aspects as a defensive end. Carter’s elite athleticism to play incredibly similar to Parsons, if you put highlights of both side by side from Penn State, you would be hard-pressed to distinguish one from the other.
With Carter’s limited experience on the edge, it only makes his performance that much more impressive that he is playing at a level of a Top 10 NFL Draft pick. If you think Carter has peaked, he feels just the opposite.
“Just feel like I’m still getting better,” Carter said. “There’s still much to learn and I haven’t played my best football yet.”
If we know we are seeing the best out of Pearce, which is equally impressive to Carter, and Carter feels he hasn’t played his best football yet, so how is Pearce on the same level or even better? I may be wrong in the future and will have no problem writing about my errors, but if you ask me, Carter is peaking at the right time and there isn’t a better EDGE rusher in the nation than him.
