Jalen Carter knows the names.
As the Eagles’ immensely talented defensive star enters his third NFL season in 2025, he knows which players are considered to be the best defensive tackles in the league.
He also knows that his name has started to enter the conversation.
“I know who’s good and I know who everybody loves,” Carter said this week at OTAs. “Dexter Lawrence, Chris Jones. All of them. I see it, but at the end of the day, I’m still grinding and just doing my own thing. If my name pops up, then I guess congratulations to me. Just keep going.”
Carter, 24, is just scratching the surface of his immense potential. In 2024, Carter was named to his first Pro Bowl and was named an Associated Press second-team All-Pro.
The first-team All-Pros last year were Jones and Cameron Heyward, while Carter and Zach Allen were named to the second team. Lawerence likely would have made that list but he was limited to just 12 games in 2024 and still managed to have nine sacks.
But you get the idea.
There’s a short list of the best defensive tackles in the NFL and Carter is climbing it. Quickly.
“This is what I wanted to do,” Carter said. “I wanted to be the best at what I do, try to be the best. I’m not there yet. I still got a lot of people in front of me that’s obviously been in the league a couple (more) years, got years of experience on me. But I’m just going to keep grinding every day. Not just me by myself working on specific things to get better, just being around the team having the guys support me also makes me also be one of the best in the league.”
The Eagles drafted Carter with the No. 9 overall pick out of Georgia back in 2023 and from the moment he stepped foot in Philadelphia, his teammates saw something special in Carter. His first two seasons in the NFL have done nothing to quell that excitement inside the NovaCare Complex.
Fangio on Tuesday was asked for his thoughts on something Eagles legend Jeremiah Trotter said on WIP recently, that Carter still doesn’t even really know how to play the position yet. And while there might be some hyperbole involved in that description, Fangio agreed with the overall point.
“The good news about Jalen is twofold,” Fangio said. “One, he played very well for us last year, and two, he can still improve a lot.”
If you want to really know what Fangio thinks of Carter, you don’t have to listen to him speak. His actions are much louder. Fangio is obviously in charge of defensive personnel and Carter played 84% of the Eagles’ defensive snaps in the regular season last year (not including Week 18, when the starters rested) and that jumped up to 88% in the playoffs, even with the two lopsided wins in the NFC Championship Game and the Super Bowl.
All together, Carter played 1,068 snaps last year — more than any defensive tackle in the NFL.
That workload isn’t going to change in 2025.
“He’s still a young pup,” Fangio said.
Last offseason, Carter talked constantly about his conditioning level. He clearly knew Fangio was going to call on him to play a ton in 2024 and he was right. NFL snap count data goes back to 2012 and Carter played more snaps last year than any Eagles defensive lineman in a single season in that span.
“It looked like I was having fun, right?” Carter said. “I was having fun out there. Shoot, if I could play every down, I would love it. If I gotta get out because I need a break or something, I know the next guy gonna come in and step up for me.”
Carter’s numbers weren’t gaudy in 2024, but they were still impressive. He finished the regular season with 4 1/2 sacks, 12 tackles for loss, 16 quarterback hits, 2 forced fumbles and 6 batted passes, all while getting double-teamed at an increasingly high rate.
While the Associated All-Pro voters named Carter to the second team, it’s telling that he was named to the first team by players in the NFLPA all-pro team, where players vote for the best player at their position and the positions they line up against. Carter and Jones got the most votes at defensive tackle.
So maybe most people don’t consider Carter to be the best defensive tackle in the NFL just yet, but the point is that he’s close as he enters his third NFL season. And if he keeps improving — and there is room for growth — it won’t be long before there’s no doubt about his place among the best in the league.
What will it take for Carter to make it to the very top of that list?
“Just keep winning,” Carter said. “Keep winning 1-on-1s, double-teams, making an impact in the game and doing what I did last year but even better.”
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