Getty Image / Stacy Revere
Not too long ago, everything was going pretty great for Jalen Carter.
Georgia had just won a second consecutive championship.
His draft stock was on the rise.
There were even some who believed the Bears should take him with the 1st overall pick in the draft.
The last couple of weeks have been a disaster.
At the beginning of the month, there were reports of an arrest warrant being issued for Carter stemming from the car accident that killed one of Carter’s teammates and a Georgia recruiting staffer.
That arrest warrant had many wondering how it would impact the way teams view Carter ahead of the draft, especially after Todd McShay had previous reported that Carter had character issues.
Now he has made another decision that could hurt his chances of being one of the top picks in next month’s draft.
Today, Carter decided that he wouldn’t take part in any athletic testing at Georgia’s Pro Day after already skipping the athletic testing at the NFL Combine.
SOURCE: Georgia DT Jalen Carter will only do position drills at today’s pro-day. No 40 or other testing. Carter weighed in at 323 pounds, up 9 lbs from Combine.
— Jim Nagy (@JimNagy_SB) March 15, 2023
Gaining 9 pounds in a couple of weeks would be concerning for anybody, but is especially concerning for somebody who is supposed to be preparing to play in the NFL.
Given the way Carter’s pre-draft process has played out so far, you would think he would want to do everything in his power to convince scouts that they still need to take him in the top 10. An impressive athletic performance would have been a good way to do that.
At this point, Carter is starting to look like he’ll be the biggest mystery of the NFL Draft.
Based purely on talent, you would expect to see him taken in the top 10 and potentially even the top 5.
With the off-field issue, the weight gain, and the fact that all scouts have seen from Carter since January are some positional drills at a Pro Day, we could see him end up falling in this year’s draft.