Breaking down 3 new portal targets Texas football has interest in

Ja’Had Carter, S

Among the recent entrants to the portal in the last few days, one that apparently caught the eyes of the Texas staff is the former Freshman All-American and reigning All-ACC Honorable Mention redshirt sophomore Syracuse Orange safety Ja’Had Carter.

There is a need that Carter could fill in the secondary for the Longhorns in 2023, especially with the presumed loss of senior boundary safety Anthony Cook next year. And if Texas winds up losing someone like junior defensive back Jahdae Barron to the transfer portal heading into the 2023 offseason, that’s just another reason for the Longhorns to get another DB off the transfer market.

Carter is a nice scheme fit for the Longhorns either as a nickel or a boundary safety. He is a hard-hitter that can close on wideouts quickly in pass coverage.

Watching the film on Carter, it looks like he is an incredibly difficult DB to evade in terms of his ranginess and the hard-hitting nature of his game. The pads just pop in a different way when the ball is thrown to his side on the field.

Yet, I don’t want to discount the iso coverage ability that Carter brings to the table. He has taken snaps as a de-facto boundary corner in pass coverage. And he often took snaps as a boundary corner in one-on-one coverage on his high school film.

That type of scheme versatility can be really meaningful for the Texas secondary. But his coverage ability and ranginess mean that he can plug the gap left by Cook likely leaving for the NFL after the bowl game.

All in all, one of my favorite parts about Carter’s game is that he was constantly figuring out the safety position more and more and always improving in multiple regards in the last few seasons. Carter improved his defensive grade year-over-year in every season at Syracuse and progressed his coverage grade year-over-year since last fall.