The needs just keep getting filled – joining a wide receiver, cornerback, safety, tight end and defensive end in the 2018 draft class will be a linebacker, after the Panthers have drafted Jermaine Carter, Jr. from the University of Maryland with the 24th pick in the fifth round, 161st overall.
Carter started all 37 games at middle linebacker from 2015 to 2017 and led the team in tackles three consecutive seasons, breaking 100 tackles in two of his last three seasons – the 6’1, 228 pound Carter was named the team’s defensive player of the year in 2017 to go along with honorable mention All-Big Ten honors. Carter, who’s known affectionately as “Pee Wee”, may have his biggest impact on special teams, where he was considered a team leader early in his career with 22 tackles on special teams in his freshman and sophomore seasons.
“I see a guy that got good first-step quickness,” Rivera said about the team’s fifth-round pick. “Plays laterally very well; he played in a defense that was OK, they were a young team that was still growing, so he had to do a lot of work on his own. One thing he plays with is great leverage, he’s not very tall, he’s 6’1 and explosive when he gets into contact. Extends his hands very nicely, works to shed quickly.”
“One thing he does very well is defeats the blocker and then locates the ball as opposed to keeping his eyes in the backfield, which I think is important.”
Carter joins first-round pick DJ Moore and veteran wideout Torrey Smith as University of Maryland alumni on the team – weirdly enough, both Carter and Moore wore #1 in College Park, although Carter isn’t ready to say who is the real #1.
“It’s not a competition,” said Carter via phone call minutes after he was drafted. “We’re both great players; he’s a great player and I like to look at myself as a good player, so I’m just happy that we’re able to be teammates at the next level.”
Moore must have preternatural abilities, because Carter was actually told by the Panthers first-rounder that he was going to be drafted by the Panthers before he got the call from the team – Moore told Carter that he was asked about his teammate on the defensive side of the ball during his private visit with Carolina, and then had a feeling that Carter was going to be a potential draft pick.
Carter joins perhaps the best linebacking corps in the NFL, boasting Luke Kuechly, Thomas Davis and Shaq Thompson in the starting lineup with Ben Jacobs and David Mayo poised to add depth – although Davis will be missing for the first four games of the season, which may present a bit of an opportunity for Carter to step in and get some playing time.
“I’m very familiar with how those guys play and how instinctive Luke Kuechly is and I try to model myself, a little bit, after him,” Carter said about playing alongside those Pro Bowlers.
“Just to be able to be with the Panthers and learn from him is a great opportunity.”
