Picture swinging for the fences on two strikes at the bottom of the 9th and hitting a home run. That’s akin to what transpired with EDGE Abdul Carter in his final collegiate season. He had one last shot to grow his NFL stock before leaving Happy Valley. As often as this cliché gets thrown around, it was truly a line in the sand for the rest of Carter’s career. He went forward from being a linebacker into the front 4. Boy, did he make the most of this position change? Before 2024, Abdul Carter was expected to be a late-stage Day 1, maybe even Day 2 pick in the draft. He bows out of CFB as one of the hottest commodities around, amid shouts of being a game-breaker. The proverbial vultures are naturally circling.

Of all the wrinkles and byproducts of the inaugural 12-team CFP, Abdul Carter was perhaps the biggest beneficiary outside of Columbus, OH. Whatever eminence he’d already garnered in the regular season, he compounded in the playoffs. Penn State has seen the likes of LaVar Arrington and Micah Parsons precede Carter in donning the iconic St1x C1ty #11 jersey. But even Micah, arguably the best edge rusher in the sport, didn’t come into the league with this amount of fervor. Abdul Carter is considered a consensus top 5 pick in the NFL draft. Conservatively, that is. However, one franchise just about on the bubble of this pseudo-cut-off point weighs up pairing him with their own superstar EDGE.

The nature of sports fandom is such that it works in subjective hypotheticals more than objective reality. So imagine Abdul Carter and Maxx Crosby rushing the quarterback in tandem. Fans of the Las Vegas Raiders are probably salivating at the proposition. That said, it may be brushed aside as a pipedream since the chances of Carter falling to the 6th pick are slim to nil. But could the Raiders’ brass trade up from #6 to make this happen? One person with a rooting interest in the franchise is spurring the front office on. After seeing how their divisional rivals, the Chiefs, crumbled under a potent pass rush in the Super Bowl, it’s hard to argue against the Raiders going down this route.

Over the “Raiders Report by Chat Sports” YouTube channel, host Mitchell Renz relayed his list of the 5 best targets the franchise should pursue in the first round. Abdul Carter slotted in at #2. Renz lavished some very high praise on the player. “I literally think Abdul Carter can be Micah Parsons,” he remarked. Renz proceeded to make another hyperbolic claim, which goes to show the quality of the player.

“I watched a lot of Penn State football…he was dominating. When you have the first step? When you have all the moves, the bend, the acceleration? Abdul Carter, with [DC] Patrick Graham and [D-line coach] Rob Leonard, has the opportunity to be the best edge rusher in the NFL. He has an opportunity to be better than Maxx Crosby, and I don’t say those words lightly,” said Renz. If you weren’t sold on Carter before, you likely are now. But his path from State College to Sin City is far from linear.

Abdul Carter drops a subliminal hint about which NFL franchise he’s headed to

Depending on whether you caught every down, every beat of the Super Bowl. Or if you saw the box score at the end. You’d have varying perspectives on how that game played out and how close the Kansas City Chiefs were to the elusive three-peat. However, one thing was irrefutable. The key to Philly’s triumph was their defensive line. It’s been widely discussed, but that facet is important in the context of Abdul Carter. His stock went up overnight without even getting his cleats dirty. Carter was wary of this. He tweeted, “Defense wins championships!!! #1 Overall pick, 74 days…” This was particularly intriguing after what the holders of said “#1 Overall pick”, the Tennessee Titans, made clear about their choice.

The Titans’ president of football ops, Chad Brinker, has stated the franchise “won’t pass on a generational talent with the first pick.” It’s up for discretion who he meant. But the general notion is only Abdul Carter and Travis Hunter are deserving of that moniker. It’ll be naive to think Carter hasn’t spoken to someone from the Titans. Perhaps he is privy to something, or perhaps this was just a show of confidence. Either way, the Raiders are clearly not the leaders. But indeed among the opportune chasing pack.

The Raiders need a messiah figure to lift the franchise out of this recent slump. Usually, that’ll have to be a quarterback. Most expect that to be where the franchise ends up going. Even Mitchell Rinz put Cam Ward as his #1 target in the aforementioned video. Ever since their move from Oakland, the organization has been yearning for their next “face of the franchise.” Tom Brady has bought ownership of the team and will spearhead football operations. He even has a pre-existing relationship with one QB. That said, Abdul Carter could be a shrewd move to build the trenches. He’ll require a trade to move up the pecking order, though, which the Raiders will have to factor in.