Everybody loves a Penn State hybrid edge linebacker — besides possibly NFC East offensive linemen.
Micah Parsons has made a case to be acknowledged as the most effective defensive participant within the NFL as a linebacker and edge rusher with the Dallas Cowboys.
There’s nothing NFL groups love greater than replicating each other.
However how related are the 2 Nittany Lions?
Abdul Carter is 6-foot-3, 250 kilos — solely 4 greater than his Penn State counterpart. He performs nearly all of his snaps on the rush linebacker place, however is ready to drop all the way down to play stand-up edge or drop again into protection if crucial, due to spectacular athletic chops. Parsons and Carter share the identical go off the sting, tracing to their linebacker background.
They’ll explode in any route and preserve the pure fluidity to shut and stuff the stat sheet with sacks.
Possibly it is a scorching take, however I’d slightly have my edge rushers come from a linebacker background than a defensive sort out background ( you, Shemar Stewart).
There’s nothing improper with having immense pure energy in your recreation, however energy will be constructed. It’s tougher to achieve velocity and burst in the event you aren’t ranging from a robust flooring. It’s a part of what makes Parsons persistently profitable. He outclasses each offensive lineman athletically and will lap a few of them in a monitor meet.
Carter shares that very same explosiveness and agility, and his angles to pursue the quarterback are tight and exact.
Penn State move rushers have usually been technically sound. Even guys like Arnold Ebiketie — who shouldn’t be fairly of Parsons’ and Carter’s caliber — have made names for themselves based mostly on technical refinement and a bag of pass-rush strikes.
Carter has that in spades. Beginning with a very soiled spin transfer that leaves tackles dizzy and sometimes on the bottom, he makes use of a fast chop and bend off the nook. Penn State coach James Franklin emphasizes agility and technical refinement along with his edge rushers, which predates Parsons. Take into consideration Shaka Toney — whereas not a prime NFL participant — whose edge dashing skill on the school degree was derived virtually solely from lateral motion. That’s what you’re getting with a Penn State edge man.
Carter makes a case for the most effective defensive participant within the class. His spectacular athleticism and polished technical expertise make for an entire edge rusher prospect who nonetheless has a wide-open ceiling. Is he the subsequent Micah Parsons? I’m unsure how a lot Carter would recognize me placing him in a Nittany Lion–formed field, however he might very properly be the subsequent star of a protection in the way in which Parsons is for the Cowboys. They play equally and helped flip the Nittany Lions’ protection right into a power of nature.
Carter deserves the excessive draft decide he’ll seemingly garner, and we will count on to see him stacking sacks for years to come back.
