NFL Draft 2023: Can Jalen Carter Improve Stock?

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Pre-draft is a time to focus mainly on preparing for a professional football career. There is little time for family or anything else. This is a time for traveling, exercising, making professional connections, and other activities to specifically prepare for football.

Carter has to do more. If he has even a little bit of time, he can make a speech or even spend a few minutes making a YouTube video. If he makes a YouTube video, a heartfelt and public apology along with a plea to not do the same thing would go a long way. It would be emotional and difficult. It’s not something any of us would want to face. However, doing the right thing after such a tragedy is never easy. He lost a teammate and a good friend. Being faced with that along with public humiliation, blaming, and perhaps even mean-spirited taunting, is never simple.

This is the time to think of others though. If Carter does something to make others avoid the same mistake and in the process save lives, he should take at least a few minutes to do that. Such an action wouldn’t necessarily be to benefit him but others that can be saved by a few words of warning.

As it stands, the flashbacks of Henry Riggs are hard to ignore. You’d hate to see Carter go down the same path. That’s likely why the Raiders had Carter off their draft board. However, the Raiders plan to meet with him which indicates the team changed their stance on him.

What will happen? Will Carter still be a top-ten pick because he’s a dominant defensive lineman? Will be on the board Day 2? Might Carter end up being an undrafted free agent? It’s anyone’s guess at the moment.

Chances are, he will get the call no later than the second round. He’s a great player and will likely get his chance to start at some point. It’s not easy for Carter to deal with what happened. He probably has nightmares about it each night. However, he has to move on and learn from the tragedy. Part of moving on is facing what happened and facing the public “court of opinion”. That’s what brave people do.