Boom or Bust for Bruce Carter?

While Bruce Carter is no stranger to draftniks and North Carolina Tarheel fanatics, the casual Cowboys fan may not be very familiar with this years 2nd round draft pick. We all are very much aware with first round pick offensive tackle Tyron Smith from USC and his arrival into town. But many may not be very familiar with Carter’s strengths, weaknesses and the attributes that he can bring to a team like the Dallas Cowboys.

This pick left many Dallas fans scratching their heads and wondering just how Carter would fit into the defensive scheme of Rob Ryan. Senior writer Joe D. Ramirez gave a brief rundown and opinion of Carter shortly after Dallas made the pick during the 2011 NFL draft. With word that Keith Brooking may be on the outs in Dallas, this could have been a reach for the Cowboys in anticipation of that move. Personally, I don’t see it…at least not this year and least not due to Carter being drafted.

Carter displays tremendous straight line speed for a 6’2″ 241 lbs. linebacker. From tape, you get the opinion that he is a finesse linebacker that can get pushed around a lot and doesn’t wrap up tackles very well. Carter instead depends on a big hit to knock a player down. This may have served well for him in college, but at the next level the faster, bigger and shiftier players will leave Carter tackling nothing but air.

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The current top five in order is Carolina, Detroit, Cincinnati, Buffalo, and Arizona. Just falling short of the top five are  Denver Broncos and San Francisco 49ers at pick 6 and 7, respectively. Up next are our Dallas Cowboys with the Redskins and Titans rounding out the top ten.

As Dallas has improved under interim coach Jason Garrett, their draft position has begun to slide away from the top. At pick six just last week, the Cowboys sat in prime position to pick up one of the top cornerbacks in this year’s class — Patrick Peterson of LSU or Nebraska’s Prince Amukamara. Now it seems that Dallas will have to look at other options.

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