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Tom Allen had the good fortune to be able to scheme up way to utilize Abdul Carter's strength last season as Penn State's defensive coordinator. It was a much better position to be in than the previous two years, when he had to scheme to stop Carter as Indiana's head coach.
"Heck, yeah, there's no question," Allen, now Clemson's defensive coordinator, told the Beacon Journal in a phone interview Tuesday night.
The Carter Allen's Hoosiers teams had to deal with in two 2022-23 games was mostly a linebacker. A really good, versatile linebacker, but still mostly just a linebacker.
However, when Allen was hired to be the Nittany Lions' defensive coordinator after he was let go by Indiana, Carter came to him with an idea. He wanted to be something more than just a linebacker. He wanted to be a versatile pass-rushing threat like former Penn State and current Dallas Cowboys star Micah Parsons.
"I think the thing was, because I knew him as a pure linebacker and we struggled to block him like most people did," Allen said. "He was just so athletic and so elusive, and once he pulled the trigger, man, he just went. … He wanted to play the edge, but I just knew how valuable for his future as well, when you can prove you can do that.
"Just the ability to move him around upfront to be able to put him on whoever their weakest lineman was on that given game plan and that you were playing was just an awesome thing to be able to do because he was so versatile, he could do it from every position. Then we could also move him back at times and draw him in coverage or still blitz him from depth."
Allen was all-in with Carter's suggestion. He saw the short-term and long-term benefits for the 6-foot-3, 250-pound player.
The short term was to help Penn State win 12 regular-season games, reach the Big Ten championship game and beat Boise State in the College Football Playoff quarterfinal at the Fiesta Bowl. The long-term payoff comes as Carter prepares to embark on his NFL career, starting with this month's draft.
"He can really play in any kind of system, whether it's a 3-4 outside backer, a 4-3 edge, a true end off the edge or an inside backer in a 4-3 defense," Allen said. "And then you got your third-down packages that people will have that just gives you unlimited options for him. So I think his position flexibility, his uniqueness and his skillset is going to serve him well, and obviously I think him moving to edge this past year just elevated stock even more."
Carter played 433 of his 514 defensive snaps as a freshman in 2022 at an in-the-box linebacker spot, with more than 130 each at left or right inside linebacker. As a sophomore in 2023, it was more of the same, with 470 of 588 defensive snaps at an in-the-box linebacker spot, with 129 at left inside linebacker and 158 at right inside backer.
Last season, however, Carter played 642 of his 734 defensive snaps along the defensive line. He played 228 snaps at right defensive end, 186 at right outside linebacker, 112 at left end and 101 at left outside linebacker, as well as 90 snaps at an inside linebacker spot.
The move turned the second-team All-American as a sophomore into a consensus unanimous first-team All-America selection. The Big Ten's Defensive Player of the Year had 12 sacks, one more than his first two seasons combined, and 23.5 tackles for loss, which was 7.5 than the previous seasons combined.
"Just very valuable chess piece," Allen said. "Everybody you knew that their No. 1 objective was where's 11 [Carter]? We would go through the first couple series and say, OK, we're trying to figure out what their plan was, how are they trying to handle him? What was their answer to be able to account for him and block him and protect?
"We always had A, B and C based off what they did, those first couple of guys that it just kind of grew from there. So I think that's probably why we had a lot of success in the second half and later on as the game unfold just because we had to figure out exactly [how] they [were] playing because obviously he was the guy that they had to account for in every situation."
Parsons ended up being the No. 12 overall pick in the 2021 draft by the Cowboys. He's coming into the final year of his rookie contract and is primed to make even more than the Browns' Myles Garrett, who signed a four-year $130 million extension last month that made him the highest-paid defensive player in NFL history.
Carter isn't expected to come close to being the No. 12 pick in this month's draft. Two weeks out from the April 24 first round, either the Browns at No. 2 or New York Giants at No. 3 are viewed as the top two options to land the edge rusher.
Allen's defensive background came out as he chuckled at the thought about the potential of pairing Carter with the All-Pro Garrett in Cleveland, and what the younger edge rusher could gain from playing with the future Hall of Famer. That's due to a familiarity with both players, having recruited Garrett during his time as an assistant coach at Ole Miss from 2012-14.
"To me, I think just the true technique of playing the position, that's why I feel like that only time will enhance that ability," Allen said. "Then being able to be in that type of situation, to mean the use of the hands and to be able to set up your moves better and be able to do a better job of reading offensive tackles and their pass sets and where they're going to be landmark-wise based off of that protection and their stance and the different things you can anticipate pre-snap. …
"Also you have a chance to be able to be opposite a guy like [Garrett] where it's would be an absolute terror for an offensive line to have to deal with both those guys on the same front. But I just think anytime you got a guy like that, that's proven it at that level consistently, that's an awesome thing to be able to pattern your game after."
Chris Easterling can be reached at [email protected]. Read more about the Browns at www.beaconjournal.com/sports/browns. Follow him on X at @ceasterlingABJ
This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Abdul Carter's versatility makes him a unique NFL draft prospect
Continue reading...
"Heck, yeah, there's no question," Allen, now Clemson's defensive coordinator, told the Beacon Journal in a phone interview Tuesday night.
The Carter Allen's Hoosiers teams had to deal with in two 2022-23 games was mostly a linebacker. A really good, versatile linebacker, but still mostly just a linebacker.
However, when Allen was hired to be the Nittany Lions' defensive coordinator after he was let go by Indiana, Carter came to him with an idea. He wanted to be something more than just a linebacker. He wanted to be a versatile pass-rushing threat like former Penn State and current Dallas Cowboys star Micah Parsons.
"I think the thing was, because I knew him as a pure linebacker and we struggled to block him like most people did," Allen said. "He was just so athletic and so elusive, and once he pulled the trigger, man, he just went. … He wanted to play the edge, but I just knew how valuable for his future as well, when you can prove you can do that.
"Just the ability to move him around upfront to be able to put him on whoever their weakest lineman was on that given game plan and that you were playing was just an awesome thing to be able to do because he was so versatile, he could do it from every position. Then we could also move him back at times and draw him in coverage or still blitz him from depth."
Allen was all-in with Carter's suggestion. He saw the short-term and long-term benefits for the 6-foot-3, 250-pound player.
The short term was to help Penn State win 12 regular-season games, reach the Big Ten championship game and beat Boise State in the College Football Playoff quarterfinal at the Fiesta Bowl. The long-term payoff comes as Carter prepares to embark on his NFL career, starting with this month's draft.
"He can really play in any kind of system, whether it's a 3-4 outside backer, a 4-3 edge, a true end off the edge or an inside backer in a 4-3 defense," Allen said. "And then you got your third-down packages that people will have that just gives you unlimited options for him. So I think his position flexibility, his uniqueness and his skillset is going to serve him well, and obviously I think him moving to edge this past year just elevated stock even more."
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Carter played 433 of his 514 defensive snaps as a freshman in 2022 at an in-the-box linebacker spot, with more than 130 each at left or right inside linebacker. As a sophomore in 2023, it was more of the same, with 470 of 588 defensive snaps at an in-the-box linebacker spot, with 129 at left inside linebacker and 158 at right inside backer.
Last season, however, Carter played 642 of his 734 defensive snaps along the defensive line. He played 228 snaps at right defensive end, 186 at right outside linebacker, 112 at left end and 101 at left outside linebacker, as well as 90 snaps at an inside linebacker spot.
The move turned the second-team All-American as a sophomore into a consensus unanimous first-team All-America selection. The Big Ten's Defensive Player of the Year had 12 sacks, one more than his first two seasons combined, and 23.5 tackles for loss, which was 7.5 than the previous seasons combined.
"Just very valuable chess piece," Allen said. "Everybody you knew that their No. 1 objective was where's 11 [Carter]? We would go through the first couple series and say, OK, we're trying to figure out what their plan was, how are they trying to handle him? What was their answer to be able to account for him and block him and protect?
"We always had A, B and C based off what they did, those first couple of guys that it just kind of grew from there. So I think that's probably why we had a lot of success in the second half and later on as the game unfold just because we had to figure out exactly [how] they [were] playing because obviously he was the guy that they had to account for in every situation."
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Parsons ended up being the No. 12 overall pick in the 2021 draft by the Cowboys. He's coming into the final year of his rookie contract and is primed to make even more than the Browns' Myles Garrett, who signed a four-year $130 million extension last month that made him the highest-paid defensive player in NFL history.
Carter isn't expected to come close to being the No. 12 pick in this month's draft. Two weeks out from the April 24 first round, either the Browns at No. 2 or New York Giants at No. 3 are viewed as the top two options to land the edge rusher.
Allen's defensive background came out as he chuckled at the thought about the potential of pairing Carter with the All-Pro Garrett in Cleveland, and what the younger edge rusher could gain from playing with the future Hall of Famer. That's due to a familiarity with both players, having recruited Garrett during his time as an assistant coach at Ole Miss from 2012-14.
"To me, I think just the true technique of playing the position, that's why I feel like that only time will enhance that ability," Allen said. "Then being able to be in that type of situation, to mean the use of the hands and to be able to set up your moves better and be able to do a better job of reading offensive tackles and their pass sets and where they're going to be landmark-wise based off of that protection and their stance and the different things you can anticipate pre-snap. …
"Also you have a chance to be able to be opposite a guy like [Garrett] where it's would be an absolute terror for an offensive line to have to deal with both those guys on the same front. But I just think anytime you got a guy like that, that's proven it at that level consistently, that's an awesome thing to be able to pattern your game after."
Chris Easterling can be reached at [email protected]. Read more about the Browns at www.beaconjournal.com/sports/browns. Follow him on X at @ceasterlingABJ
This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Abdul Carter's versatility makes him a unique NFL draft prospect
Continue reading...
