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** ROUNDS 2 & 3 DISCUSSION ** (2022 NFL DRAFT)


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27. ZACHARY CARTER | Florida 6042 | 282 lbs. | rSR. Tampa, Fla. (Hillsborough) 4/7/1999 (age 23.06) #6
BACKGROUND: Zachary “Zach” Carter was born and raised in North Tampa, Fla., and started playing pee wee football for the Bay Area Raiders at age 7. At age 9, he
stopped playing football to focus on baseball and basketball. After returning to football in the eighth grade, Carter enrolled at Hillsborough High, where he was a twosport
letterman. He saw varsity reps as a freshman, when he started the final five games at offensive tackle in 2013. Carter started on both the offensive and
defensive lines as a sophomore and registered 73 tackles and 3.0 sacks. As a junior, he saw reps at tight end and tackle on offense and was unblockable at defensive
end with 76 tackles and 5.5 sacks. Carter played more defensive tackle as a senior and led Hillsborough to an 8-2 finish with 56 tackles and 6.5 sacks to earn 2016 First
Team All-County and Tampa Player of the Year honors. He also lettered in basketball and averaged better than 11.0 points and 9.0 rebounds per game over his final
three seasons as a power forward on varsity.
A four-star recruit out of high school, Carter was the No. 3 strongside defensive end in the 2017 recruiting class and the No. 23 recruit in the state of Florida. His
recruitment took off during his junior season, and he collected more than 40 offers, including national powers like Alabama, Georgia and Ohio State. However, Carter
grew up dreaming of playing for the Gators and signed with Florida, becoming the school’s top-ranked defensive recruit in the 2017 class. His older brother (Frank)
played offensive guard at FCS-level Jackson State (2014-16). Carter skipped Florida’s 2021 bowl game and accepted his invitation to the 2022 Senior Bowl.
YEAR (GP/GS) TKLS TFL SACK FF PD INT NOTES
2017: Redshirted
2018: (9/0) 8 1.0 0.0 0 2 0 Blocked FG
2019: (13/2) 31 7.0 4.5 1 2 0 DE
2020: (12/11) 36 9.5 5.0 0 2 0 DT; Led team in TFL, sacks
2021: (12/12) 32 11.0 8.0 1 2 0 DT
Total: (46/25) 107 28.5 17.5 2 8 0
HT WT ARM HAND WING 40-YD 20-YD 10-YD VJ BJ SS 3C BP
COMBINE 6042 282 33 1/2 10 1/4 80 3/8 4.99 2.87 1.68 27 1/2 9’2” - - 19 (no shuttles — left hamstring)
PRO DAY 6040 287 33 10 1/4 81 5.00 2.66 1.69 - - 4.56 7.34 - (stood on Combine jumps, bench press)
STRENGTHS: Moldable frame with adequate length ... accelerates quickly and gets into the chest of blockers ... transfers the energy from his first two steps into
contact and leverages his body to generate movement ... hands are a blur ... has an array of rush moves, including an efficient arm-over and swipe technique to
slingshot past blockers ... quick to fire through gaps and reset his vision to find the ball carrier ... uses length to lock out, read, and contain the edge in the run game ...
wins with extra effort, and his motor stays cranked ... versatile, with experience up and down the defensive line from the A-gap to outside the tackle.
WEAKNESSES: Narrow rusher and doesn’t have the body flexibility to bend the edge ... average explosion and inconsistent snap anticipation, a bad combo for a
defensive lineman ... doesn’t have natural pass rush instincts ... flashes a variety of rush moves but struggles to efficiently patch them together ... physical hands can
knock him off his rush track ... finds himself out-flanked in the run game ... late to unwind from blocks and must improve his shed skills ... lack of flexibility hurts his
ability to break down in small spaces, leading to missed tackles ... below-average production and averaged less than three tackles per game as a college starter.
SUMMARY: A two-year starter at Florida, Carter was used up and down the defensive line in former defensive coordinator Todd Grantham’s scheme, spending most
of his time as either a three-technique or five-technique. His pass rush efficiency and backfield production improved each season in Gainesville, with 20.5 tackles for
loss over his final 24 games. Carter is at his best with a runway, where he can rush head-up with physical hands to generate power, extending into blockers and
putting them on skates. He has quick read-and-react ability in the run game, but powerful blockers can out-leverage him, leaving him late to shed. Overall, Carter is
limited in the ways he wins as a pass rusher because of his stiffness and undeveloped counters, but he is a high-effort, quick-footed athlete who is well-versed
with various defensive techniques. He projects as a rotational base end in the NFL.
GRADE: 6th Round

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Carter considered sitting out the 2020 season due to concerns about COVID-19 after friends of his family passed away from complications. After sitting out some practices, he decided to play and eventually led the Gators with five sacks and tied for the team lead with 9.5 tackles for loss among his 36 total stops in 12 games (11 starts). That success extended into the 2021 season, starting 12 games (32 tackles, 11 tackles for loss with eight sacks, two pass breakups) before opting out of the team's bowl game to prepare for the NFL draft. The Tampa product played in nine games as a redshirt freshman in 2018 (eight tackles, two pass breakups) and started twice in 13 appearances the following fall (31 tackles, seven for loss with 4.5 sacks). Carter contributed on special teams, blocking a kick in in both 2018 and 2019. He switched from jersey No. 17 to No. 6 as a senior in 2021 as a nod to former Gator and current NFL pass rusher Dante Fowler Jr. -- by Chad Reuter

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The bottom line is that the team that does the best at disrupting the opposing QB is going to win the AFC Championship. 11 teams in the AFC can score 30 points every week. Who can hold them to 20 will be the team that wins the league. We just addressed that with three picks who will all contribute towards that goal over the next five years. They will all help us afford those contract renewals of Burrow, Chase and Higgins on the Offensive side of the ball. What we do with our LT depends upon his ability to improve. We may let him go if he has another injured season and/or has an average season. He's still very young, so I imagine we resign him. It's just going to be a difficult negotiation as he won't deserve Top-20 money, and he'll probably ask for top-10.

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This had to be the correct pick.  Addressing the D-Line was absolutely the correct decision and they thought this player fit this spot based on their plans for the next several year better than anyone else.

 

I can't emphsize enough that the Bengals have been hitting grandslams the last 2-1/2 years with their decision-making, so this has to be the right choice, regardless of outcome.

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There's one clear goal of this draft.....make life difficult for opposing QB's, and with the number of quality ones that will face us every game, I like the idea of putting together a Defense that is as good as the Browns' Defense. We already led the NFL/AFC in a number of Defensive categories, and now we just got a heck of a lot faster.

Cherry on the cake would be to sign Bates to a long-term contract.

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