Eagles insights: Jalen Carter emerging into one of NFL's top DTs, blitz rate rising, deep look at red zone

After five games, the discussion about Eagles defensive tackle Jalen Carter is no longer whether he’s one of the best rookies in the NFL. 

It’s whether he’s one of the best defensive tackles in the NFL.

Carter added two sacks in Sunday’s win over the Los Angeles Rams with the NFL’s standard bearer for defensive tackles on the other sideline. It’s obviously premature to put Carter in Aaron Donald’s category, although the list of players stacked between them might not be as lengthy as one might suspect for a rookie. Carter has 3.5 sacks, and the advanced data is even more impressive. He ranks first among all defensive tackles in pressures (25), pressure rate (19.5) and average pass rush get-off (0.77 seconds), according to NFL Next Gen Stats. And he’s tied for fifth in the NFL in pressures behind a group of top edge rushers. 

Since 2016, Donald is the only other defensive tackle in the NFL to start a season with at least 3.5 sacks, 25 pressures, and two forced fumbles in the first five games.

“Phenomenal player who works really hard to continue to get better,” Eagles coach Nick Sirianni said. “We saw that he was a phenomenal player in college, right? He’s had a great first five weeks. We have high hopes for him. He has to keep proving it over and over and over again. Because if you want to be considered in the top part of this league as a football player, it’s about consistency and it’s about doing it year-in and year-out. So, he’s had a good start. He has to continue to put the work in. We know he has the talent.

“…We won’t put him in Canton yet. He’s got to just keep going each and every day and getting better, and it’s about consistency. He’s got the ability to do it.”

It makes sense for Sirianni to avoid going overboard and giving him a gold jacket, although “phenomenal” is an appropriate word because Carter has been a phenom for the Eagles. 

His draft fall was well-documented and unrelated to football. The Eagles were confident in the infrastructure they had in place for him; Fletcher Cox has been particularly valuable, even checking on Carter regularly throughout the offseason. But the only way to truly know if something new and unproven is going to work is by living with it and experiencing it.

The early returns validate the risk that existed — and have quieted some of the initial questions.

“I don’t know if it’s a surprise, but it’s impressive how much he loves football,” defensive coordinator Sean Desai said. “He’s like a sponge. He’s asking for feedback. He’s getting coached hard. And even from his peers, he’s taking a lot of coaching from his peers, and whoever he can feel like he can get information from, a lot of guys are touching him. (Defensive line coach Tracy) Rocker obviously is a primary key point.  Fletch, obviously, has been big. And even (assistant) Matt Leo has done a tremendous job of pulling him aside and doing things with him, Coach Washburn. That’s the impressive part. He’s a sponge, wants to keep getting better, keep being a big part of this defense and impacting and he’s taking ownership.”

Carter’s development has also changed the outlook of the defense. Losing Javon Hargrave left a major void for the Eagles. Jordan Davis and Milton Williams’ development was supposed to be a big part of the Eagles’ plan to replace him. Carter’s draft drop changed the picture and gave the line more upside. But it was still unproven. 

The production of Carter through five games has meant the Eagles have an elite-type presence in the middle of the defense. Because he’s not just one of the best rookies — he’s one of the NFL’s best defensive tackles.

What’s behind the blitzing?

For those Eagles fans who want to see blitzing, you’ll be happy to know how the defense is trending.

The Eagles blitzed on 31.7 percent of the Rams’ dropbacks, which was their highest rate of the season. It came one week after they blitzed 28.8 percent of the dropbacks. They did not blitz more than 20 percent in any of the first three games. 

“I think we keep evolving as a defense,” Desai said. “We keep growing, and the teams that we’re playing are different. We’ve got to be able to adapt and adjust to the teams we’re playing and what we think gives us the best chance each week to impact the opposing offense. And that philosophy won’t change. Whatever we think is the best as a staff with our players and putting them in the best positions, that’s what we’ve got to do. And we’ve got to give our guys the best chance to win because our guys care and they’re fighters and they’re going to work and they take ownership of it.”

It would make sense that the opponent has something to do with it, and perhaps the Eagles wanted to force Matthew Stafford to throw the ball quicker to try to disrupt his timing patterns. There’s also a school of thought, as Bo Wulf pointed out on the PHLY Eagles show, that using reserves on defense might compel Desai to blitz more. (Consider it the Orlando Scandrick effect.) But these past two games already rank among the six highest blitz rates of the Nick Sirianni era. 

This is part of what has impressed me about Desai’s defense. He’s had a rotating group of starters with injuries at all three levels, and he’s put together game plans that have mostly been successful. The Washington game two weeks ago was not a banner day by the defense. But the way they played against the Rams cannot be overstated. Los Angeles has played against teams such as San Francisco, Seattle, and Cincinnati — all top-of-the-league rosters. And the Rams only had Cooper Kupp against the Eagles. Yet the Eagles held the Rams to their fewest yards, the fewest yards per game, the lowest rushing output, the fewest yards per pass, and blitzed them more than any time this season. 

That’s evidence that Desai’s first month has been impressive.

“We kind of evaluate what we did from the previous game on Monday,” Desai said of the process for adjusting his week–to-week plans. “We get together as a staff. We talk about it. We kind of have some awareness of where we need to improve. And then we go through our process of how we want to approach this next team. Part of that process is knowing who we have available to us and putting guys in position and then having answers, whether we got to get to the answers early, late, whatever we got to. We try to talk about a lot of that stuff during the week as a staff; and oftentimes, even with players, situationally, ‘hey, if this happens here’s where we’re going to get to, let’s be ready for this.’”

Going deeper on the red zone woes — literally

The Eagles’ red zone woes this year have been a justifiable discussion point because they are scoring touchdowns on 42.1 percent of their trips, which ranks No. 27 in the NFL. Even if this percentage is skewed by end-of-half and end-of-game situations when they weren’t going for touchdowns, it still is well below what the standard should be under Nick Sirianni. 

So what can be taken away from this, other than Sirianni’s insistence that they must put their players in better positions and stay ahead of the sticks?

What jumps out to me is the play-calling from the 11-to-20 yard line. The Eagles have not scored a touchdown from that area this year (in fairness, an A.J. Brown touchdown was negated because of a penalty) and settled for five field goals. They scored six touchdowns last season and only attempted eight field goals. 

Of more concern, they have only converted six first downs in this area this season. They are only 3 of 8 on third downs this season. Of those five failed conversions, only two have been incomplete passes. So the Eagles are falling short of the sticks three times. Two of those were runs by Kenny Gainwell. 

“The numbers change,” offensive coordinator Brian Johnson said of this area. “I think just red zone defense is really predicated on when does the defense change? When do they go into their particular call to the red zone? It’s a different game down there. Obviously, the field shrinks. It’s the one area of the field where it becomes wider than it is longer. Football is a little bit different down there, but like I said, we got to do a great job of putting our guys in a position to make those plays and to create favorable match-ups for us and we got to do a great job of executing, as well.”

The Eagles have scored eight touchdowns when they’ve been inside the 10. They’ve attempted four field goals from inside the 10. So when they get inside the 10 and the field really shrinks, they’re scoring on 66.7 percent of their trips.

The problem — from what I’ve seen — is when they’re deeper in the red zone. Those drives are stalling and must be more productive. When that happens, the percentages will quickly change.

Nakobe Dean’s potential return

Good news for the Eagles: Nakobe Dean is returning to practice this week after missing four games with a foot injury. If the Eagles like what they see, Dean can play as soon as Sunday against the New York Jets.

There’s been speculation about whether the Eagles would keep Nicholas Morrow as a starting linebacker even when Dean returns. That would surprise me at this point, for two reasons:

1. The Eagles have an organizational investment in Dean being a key starting linebacker. They made him their highest-drafted off-ball linebacker since Mychal Kendricks in 2012, and entered the offseason with the intention of leaving that job open for him. He’s their guy at the position. 

2. Morrow has been a solid replacement and played better than he did during training camp, and that should offer the Eagles confidence that he can be a dependable veteran reserve. But there’s a difference between splash plays and down-to-down consistency, and my guess is the Eagles would still prefer Dean over Morrow on a down-to-down basis. This is not to take away from Morrow, who was deservedly praised in this space last week. If nothing else, he assures solid depth and would push Dean.

Eagles catching Phillies fever

Philadelphia’s Phillies fever has made its way across the street, where the Eagles are taking notice. A.J. Brown, who was a baseball star in high school drafted by the San Diego Padres, said he wished he could play in that type of environment.

“That was crazy,” Brown said. “I played baseball at a high school level, but to play in the Bank…would be crazy. I could just tell. Even Bryson (Scott’s) home run the other night, it was crazy. Everyone was singing his walk-up song, and he hit a grand slam. ……It was electric. I would love to play in the Bank. Even in centerfield, even if I was the opposing team. Just to see the atmosphere.”

Brown played football in the SEC. He plays in Lincoln Financial Field in a rabid atmosphere. But he noted the difference between a football game and a playoff baseball game.

“Everybody is on their toes for every pitch and you can change the game on one swing,” Brown said.

His one complaint? The games start too late! That’s why when he was asked about attending a game, he said he’d need to take in the atmosphere on television unless it was earlier in the day.

“It really has to be a decent time,” Brown said. “At 8 o’clock, I put my daughter to sleep, it’s over with. I’m about to go to bed. …At a decent time? For sure, I’ll be there.”