Georgia defensive lineman Jalen Carter has had quite the pre-draft process, mainly due to some off-the-field issues. While Carter is now busy making pre-draft visits, he apparently won’t be visiting with the Pittsburgh Steelers in the month of April, if indeed they even wanted to bring him in. Why? Well, Carter is reportedly not making pre-draft visits to teams who are currently set to select outside of the top 10 spots in the 2023 NFL Draft.
According to ESPN’s Adam Schefter on Monday, Carter, who is visiting the Chicago Bears today, is declining visit requests for any team drafting outside the top 10 picks. That report surfaced due to what Carter’s agent, Drew Rosenhaus, apparently has indicated.
“I’m confident Jalen will go in the top 10,” Rosenhaus said, according to Schefter. “He’s a good person, a family man, loves football and is a generational talent.”
That certainly is a bold strategy on the part of Carter and Rosenhaus and it will be interesting to see how it works out. Personally, I think Carter should meet with any team willing to bring him in for a pre-draft visit and that’s because it could entice a team to trade up into the top 10 to get select him. His decision to only meet with teams that currently hold selections within the top 10 seems like a huge middle finger emoji overall.
Coming out of this year’s National Championship game, Carter was considered by many draftniks to be a slam dunk top-five pick. However, his draft stock since then seems to be very questionable on the heels of his pleading no contest to two misdemeanor counts of reckless driving and racing in connection with a deadly car crash that killed one of his Georgia teammates and a team staffer.
Carter also reportedly showed up to his March Pro Day heavier than he was when he weighed in at the 2023 NFL Scouting Combine. Some reports and draftniks believe that he cut his Pro Day workout short because he was essentially too out of shape to do the drills.
Last week, Vic Tafur of The Athletic reported that league sources have indicated that Carter has been crossed off of the Las Vegas Raiders’ draft board. The Raiders currently hold the seventh overall selection in the 2023 NFL Draft. Additionally, former NFL general manger Randy Mueller recently reported that multiple teams have taken Carter off of their boards as well.
Could Carter ultimately slide down to the 17th overall spot? It’s hard to know for sure with April now here, but it certainly sounds like such a fall is at least plausible. Would the Steelers scoop Carter up at 17th overall should such a fall take place? I don’t know.
The Steelers do seem to be in the market for a defensive lineman in this year’s draft. The top names they have been connected to when it comes to defensive linemen include Clemson’s Bryan Bresee, Wisconsin’s Keeanu Benton, Michigan’s Mazi Smith and Florida’s Gervon Dexter.
We’ll likely never know if the Steelers were wanting to bring Carter in for a top-30 visit ahead of the draft. If, however, they were, one must wonder what they think about Carter’s decision to not conduct pre-draft visits with teams currently scheduled to select outside of the top 10. It goes without saying that it will be interesting to see where Carter ultimately is selected in the 2023 NFL Draft.
