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In the 2025 NFL Draft, Penn State football's Abdul Carter and Colorado's Travis Hunter are viewed as the cream of the crop as prospects, with Carter getting some comparisons to Micah Parsons, although there are some questions when it comes to projecting how Carter will fare in the NFL due to the positional change he went through.
“It's tough to project Carter because he was originally an off-ball linebacker in college,” Aaron Schatz of ESPN wrote. “This might have given him artificially low sack totals in his first couple of seasons at Penn State — 6.5 in 2022 and 4.5 sacks in 2023. But it also may give him artificially high passes defensed totals — four in 2022 and five passes defensed in 2023. The first stat gives him a disadvantage in our projections, while the second gives him an advantage.”
Schatz also noted that Carter did not do any predraft workouts at the combine or at his pro day at Penn State. He is coming off of a shoulder injury that he played through during the College Football Playoff, as well as a foot injury that surfaced around the combine. Neither injury is expected to impact him long-term, but they are things to monitor for teams in this draft process, especially those at the top of the draft.
The lack of testing numbers due to not working out makes it even tougher to project what Carter will do at the next level, according to Schatz.
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“For example, we end up projecting him with a 40-yard dash time of 4.59 seconds,” Schatz wrote. “Some reports claim he has put up better numbers than those in college workouts, but unstandardized numbers for player workouts tend to be unreliable.”
Schatz noted that only three top-five edge rusher picks since 1998 did not run a predraft 40-yard dash. Those players were Chase Young, Andrew Wadsworth and Clelin Ferrell. It is not the best company for Carter, but he is still very highly touted, and overall does still project well, but just not up there with the greats.
“Overall, Carter comes out with an impressive SackSEER projection, but he's not one of the all-time greats,” Schatz wrote. “His final college season features 12 sacks in 16 games, which is good but not historic. I would not be deterred from picking Carter near the top of the draft, but be aware there might be more risk than conventional wisdom believes.”
The general consensus is that Carter will go somewhere in the first four picks, with the Tennessee Titans, Cleveland Browns, New York Giants and New England Patriots all being in play.
