Eagles’ Rookie Rated one of the best in the NFL this season

Since dropping to the ninth overall pick in this year's NFL Draft, Jalen Carter has been one of the most analyzed rookies to join the Philadelphia Eagles in years.  Even though his teammates like Fletcher Cox have spoken very highly of him, there were still questions about Carter and whether he would live up to the hype his first season in the NFL.

According to Pro Football Focus, Jalen Carter has been the highest-rated rookie in the NFL after the first two weeks of this season.  Even though Carter only has one sack and three solo tackles so far this season, PFF explains why Carter has received a 90.2 Rating so far this season:

For the second straight week, Carter stands atop the 2023 draft class as the highest-graded rookie in the league. The Eagles' first-rounder finished the week as the only rookie to maintain a 90.0-plus grade through his first two outings. While his performance in Week 2 wasn’t nearly as impressive as his debut — finishing the day with just three quarterback hurries on 25 snaps — that’s more a result of the Vikings' game plan rather than his relative ineffectiveness. The Vikings' offensive line dedicated a lot of attention to Carter, often sliding protection to him, resulting in him facing help blocks on over 64% of his pass-rush snaps.

Considering Carter has only played 49 percent of the Eagles' Defensive snaps this season, his impact on the team has still been impressive. Carter is tied for the second most Quarterback Pressures this season with Fletcher Cox (Both have 5 while Josh Sweat leads the team with 10).  The fact that teams are now game-planning to slow down Jalen Carter is a major testament to how much he can impact a game and he's only a rookie!

Before the start of the season, Carter was at +700 odds to win NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year and now after two weeks of the 2023 season, Carter's odds are set between +200 to +230 to win the award (New Jersey Sportsbooks' odds are used for this number).

On my show (GameNight with Josh Hennig, Monday-Friday at 6 pm on 973 ESPN), I had already picked Carter to win the prestigious Rookie award before the season started.  Some of the best players in the NFL have won this award and Carter could be on his way to joining this list of top-tier defensive players: Sauce Gardner (2022), Micah Parsons (2021), Nick Bosa (2019), Joey Bosa (2016), Aaron Donald (2014), and Von Miller (2011).