Jalen Carter ranks higher than expected on new Eagles top 25 list

   

Our friends at Sports Illustrated dropped a top 25 list of Philadelphia Eagles' current best players and second-year defensive tackle Jalen Carter landed at No. 4. 

He came before quarterback Jalen Hurts and left tackle Jordan Mailata. 

That's impressive for a young defensive tackle like Carter, but he's earned the respect. 

Year 1 expectations were high for the University of Georgia product, who was drafted at No. 9 overall by the Eagles in the 2023 NFL Draft.

Jalen Carter ranks higher than expected on new Eagles top 25 list

And it's safe to say he met them as he logged 33 total tackles, six sacks, and 47 QB pressures through 16 games for the Eagles in his first NFL season.

Carter only plans to get better in Year 2. 

“My first year was OK,” Carter told reporters during OTAs. “It wasn’t how I wanted it to end. A lot of stuff that I seen on film is stuff I need to fix. It’s OK. We here now and I’m ready to be better than last year.”

By doing so, he has been working less on the playbook and more on getting stronger and faster this offseason. 

“It’s been a lot on conditioning,” Carter said. “Really, I’d like to be more conditioned than working on technique because we got all year for technique stuff. We work on technique everyday in practice with our hands, working on pass rushes and stuff like that. But you really don’t work on conditioning a lot. But I did more conditioning than I did hand movement and some of the stuff like that.”

Eagles Top 25 Current Best Players 

Here's the full list of the Eagles' top 25 best players, via Sports Illustrated's Ed Kracz:

  1. AJ Brown
  2. Lane Johnson
  3. DeVonta Smith
  4. Jalen Carter
  5. Jordan Mailata
  6. Jalen Hurts
  7. Saquon Barkley
  8. Landon Dickerson
  9. Dallas Goedert
  10. CJ Chauncey-Gardner
  11. Darius Slay
  12. Jake Elliott
  13. Josh Sweat
  14. Jordan Davis
  15. Reed Blankenship
  16. Bryce Huff
  17. Devin White
  18. Cam Jurgens
  19. Milton Williams
  20. Mekhi Becton
  21. Brandon Graham
  22. Avonte Maddox
  23. Isaiah Rodgers
  24. Cooper DeJean
  25. Kelee RIngo