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Eagles HC Nick Sirianni addresses conditioning of top draft pick
Eagles HC Nick Sirianni addresses conditioning of top draft pick,Philadelphia Eagles HC Nick Sirianni addressed the conditioning of top draft pick Jalen Carter.

Eagles HC Nick Sirianni addresses conditioning of top draft pick

Philadelphia Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni has suggested that nobody should worry about the conditioning of rookie defensive tackle Jalen Carter heading into the first weekend of May. 

“I told them straight up, things that I will — we obviously went over our rules, right, our team rules,” Sirianni said when touching on what he said to his new players on the first day of rookie minicamp, as shared by Josh Alper of Pro Football Talk.”And one of those team rules is, ‘be on time,’ and another one of those rules is, ‘be the weight you’re supposed to be,’ and those are non-negotiable for me, and they know that and we’ll just keep that standard as we go.” 

Carter was a defensive superstar with the Georgia Bulldogs and arguably the top overall prospect of this year’s draft class, but had numerous red flags hovering over him before the first round of the player selection process opened on April 27. As it pertains just to football-related issues, Carter was accused of being overweight and out of shape at Georgia’s pro day and of not displaying the proper “effort level” during practices. 

Despite all of that and a serious off-the-field incident, the Eagles traded up to grab Carter at pick No. 9. 

“I sense that he wants to be the best pro he can be, and not every place…I have no idea what each program says the person’s supposed to weigh, right, or sometimes, programs even within the NFL don’t track that or they track it, but they don’t say, ‘you have to weigh this amount;’ we do,” Sirianni added about Carter. “So that’s just new to here. We will get him to what he’s supposed to play at, and I have no doubt in my mind he’ll do whatever he needs to do to be the player he needs to be.”

Alper previously noted that Eagles GM Howie Roseman has said that he knows Carter is a “kid [who] does love football.” Roseman also pointed out that the club has “a really good support staff” which should help the first-year pro be ready to face opposing offenses — and the off-field pressures that come with an NFL job — by Week 1 of the upcoming season. 

It was subsequently reported that “members of the Georgia coaching staff are not Jalen Carter fans” and “weren’t bashful about saying so” during the predraft process. 

“Today was about going out there and my coaching points to our coaches were, listen, their bodies are not ready to play yet,” Sirianni added during his comments. “This is all about protecting the players while still getting ready to play.” 

It is absurd for anyone to believe Carter or any other player should be in gameday shape on May 5, but the fact that Sirianni addressed the matter upfront served as yet another reminder that the Eagles decision to draft Carter figures to remain a heavily-scrutinized one for months, if not years, to come.