Seahawks will need to deal with these three tough rookies in 2023
The 2023 NFL Draft is over and the league's next superstars are preparing to take the NFL by storm. Many of these players might belong to the Seattle Seahawks, of course, as they appeared to have another quality draft. Devon Witherspoon and Jaxon Smith-Njigba might be starring sooner than later.
Of course, other teams got promising rookies as well. Seattle will even likely get to see the number one overall draft pick, Bryce Young, when the Seahawks play the Panthers in Week 3. And Seattle could face other good draft classes in the Steelers and Eagles late in the season.
This year's draft was filled with an array of talent on both sides of the ball and the Seahawks will get to face plenty of them next season, there is no doubt about that. Heck, some of the games could just come down to which rookies play the best. But the three that follow might be most worrisome for Seattle this season.
The 3 best rookies the Seahawks will face this season
DT Jalen Carter - Philadelphia Eagles (Round 1, Pick 9)
The Seahawks will be facing the Eagles at home in Week 15 of this next season; which means they will be going against rookie Jalen Carter, a player they had the chance to draft at number 5 overall but ultimately passed on. Earlier this year, Carter was expected to go anywhere in the top 5 picks of the draft. He won back-to-back National Championships with Georgia in 2021 and 2022 and finished his collegiate career with 83 total tackles, 18.5 tackles for loss, and 6 sacks.
Teams began dropping Carter from their draft board altogether when they found out that he was involved in a reckless driving incident that left one of his teammates dead. It also didn't help that Carter showed up to his pro day overweight and gave a poor performance.
However, the Eagles decided his potential was worth taking the chance on and they could very well be right. If Carter can meet the original expectations set for him, he's going to wreck offensive lines and send run games into ruins.