3 reasons Chicago Bears could be wary of Jalen Carter at one overall

Chicago Bears - Credit: Jordan Prather-USA TODAY Sports
Chicago Bears - Credit: Jordan Prather-USA TODAY Sports /
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2. Is a low snap count for Jalen Carter concerning

If the Chicago Bears take Jalen Carter, they will take a player with 1,075 career snaps. That is a good sample but is smaller compared to what you typically see. By season, he played 287 snaps, 396, and 392 snaps. To compare, Will Anderson played 646, 873, and 685 snaps in the past three years. Even in the down years of Anderson, he is close to double the snaps of Carter.

Because of the clock slowing on first downs college football typically gets more plays off than the NFL. Georgia knows this and substitues their lineman more often than others to keep them fresh. Beyond that. blowouts kept Jalen Carter off of the field more. This is not just because he is dead tired.

Still, he is going to need to play 400 snaps in the NFL. Last season Justin Jones played 744 snaps. That was a huge step up in snaps, but in his career, he was under 400 just once, in his rookie season. Three years after he played 504 snaps, 527 snaps, and 487 snaps.

The Chicago Bears may have used Jones a bit much this year, but if Carter does go number one, they would like similar usage. Even if the 480-520 range is more normal because the hope is the team has more depth, that is a step up in work for Jalen Carter.

Carter has proven that on a per-snap basis, he is a beast, and his physical presence suggests that he should have no issue getting more work. Still, before you take a guy number overall you would like to know for sure that 500 snaps in a season are not a big deal.