Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1518105
A P R I L 2 0 2 4 31 W W W . B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . C O M Some news alerts are genuinely shocking, others may have been un- foreseen but make sense the more you think about them. Into the latter category falls Abdul Carter's switch from weakside linebacker to defensive end ahead of his junior season. Penn State confirmed the switch in mid-February when it released a spring roster with updated weights, numbers and positions. Carter has been working to get acclimated ever since, making this an opportune time to weigh the pros and cons. PRO: Carter has the size and skills to complement the Penn State de- fensive end contingent. Junior Dani Dennis-Sutton and senior Amin Vanover headline the list of returning defensive ends. Both players are talented but lack the explosive burst to the outside. Carter's 4.50-second 40-yard speed fixes that issue instantly. Whether it's on early downs or in obvious passing situations, he has the explosiveness and power through contact to be an elite edge rusher. At 6-foot-3 250 pounds, Carter already has the size to take on tack- les and play the position. CON: The Nittany Lions are giving up something to get something. The inherent advantage of having Carter at linebacker was that it snuck an extra edge defender onto the field. Penn State fielded an unusual de- fensive lineup in 2023, with Carter and then-sophomore Kobe King in the box. Both players checked in at 250 pounds. It was like having a bonus defensive lineman when either linebacker run-blitzed an interior gap. This doesn't mean that young linebackers such as sophomores Tony Rojas and Keon Wylie or redshirt freshman Kaveion Keys can't play the run skillfully, but stationing Carter at the line of scrimmage does change the nature of the team's front seven. Also, while Carter's off-ball instincts weren't ex- ceptional last season, he became more proficient as the season wore on. His first quarter against Ole Miss hinted at a Micah Parsons-level bowl breakout before an injury ended his day early. One other caveat that bears mentioning is that certain elements of the Nittany Lions' defense under Manny Diaz's leadership were designed to get Carter free. Those elements worked very well. According to Pro Football Focus, half of Carter's 44 pressures the past two seasons were either unblocked or cleanup pressures. That doesn't necessarily make them less meaningful or impressive, but it adds context. It's harder to win against an offensive lineman than it is to rush off the ball. Carter got plenty of free runs into the backfield and stunts around the edge of the pocket into pressure created by a teammate. There's nothing wrong with getting a player free, but other players have to set that man up. This coming season, Carter will be the setup man more often. PRO: One-on-one matchups could play to Carter's strengths. By moving to defensive end, Carter will have more pure one-on-one pass-rushing situations. He'll need to beat the opponent's best pass blocker, but there's evidence he can do that. In his pass-rushing attempts against tackles last year, Carter had an 18.4 percent win rate, per PFF. For context, superstar pass rusher Chop Robinson won 20 percent of those matchups last season, so Carter is well on his way. PRO: In Tom Allen's defense, Carter could be more effective as an edge rusher than as a linebacker. The subterfuge and chaos of Diaz's defense was predicated on the abil- ity to create overwhelming pressure. The Lions routinely used overload pressure looks, with every gap along the offensive line threatened by a defender at the line of scrimmage. The problem for opposing offenses was figuring out which players were coming after the quarterback and which were dropping into coverage. Allen does much less of this, so Carter's usage as a box blitzer would be diminished if he were to remain at linebacker. The best way to characterize this is with the "mugged" A gaps. Mugging refers to a defensive alignment with defenders in a pass-rushing stance over the center. Typically, lineback- ers who mug the A gap can rush or drop into coverage from that stance. During the past two seasons, Penn State used mugged looks about twice as often as Indiana. Now that Allen is in charge of the defense, it's fair to assume the Lions will use them less frequently. If that's the case, it makes sense for Carter to shift positions in order to take full advantage of his pass-rushing skills. In the end, the main reason to move Carter to the edge is obvious. Penn State wants to bring down the quarterback, and he is one of the best de- fenders to do that. — Thomas Frank Carr Assessing Abdul Carter's Move: Three Pros And One Con Carter's 4.50-second 40-yard speed figures to make him effective in his new role as an edge defender for the Nittany Lions. PHOTO BY RYAN SNYDER