No stone unturned: Seahawks top-of-the-draft prep reportedly includes Jalen Carter visit

Pete Carroll and John Schneider keep saying their Seahawks are in a unique position for this NFL draft.

How unique?

They are exploring possibly drafting any of the top four quarterbacks plus the top defensive players — and the most debated one — in this draft class.

Longtime league reporter Peter King of NBC Sports says the Seahawks are scheduled to host Jalen Carter on a pre-draft visit in Seattle this week.

“Georgia defensive tackle Jalen Carter is due to visit two teams in the top seven, Seattle (five) and Las Vegas (seven), in the coming days,” King wrote for his weekly Football Morning in America column published on nbcsports.com early Monday.

“How can Vegas GM Dave Ziegler and Seattle GM John Schneider finish their evaluation of Carter before sitting down with him at length? They can’t. So if you hear, ‘Carter’s out in Seattle,’ for instance, it’s just not feasible.”

That’s a reference to the fact Carter is believed to be sliding down or off some team’s draft boards after beginning the winter as a possible number one-overall pick in this draft. That is because of charges in Georgia that forced him to leave the NFL’s annual scouting combine last month and briefly got him booked into jail.

Carter eventually pleaded no contest to misdemeanor charges of reckless driving and racing. He was given 12 months’ probation with a $1,000 fine and a mandate of 80 hours of community service for an incident related to a crash Jan. 15 that killed University of Georgia offensive lineman Devin Willock and a recruiting staff member.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that Carter was present at the scene of the crash and later provided shifting accounts of the wreck to police.

Then March 15 Carter couldn’t finish his position drills at Georgia’s pro day in Athens. He reportedly weighed 323 pounds at the pro day. That was nine pounds heavier than he weighed in at the combine two weeks earlier. Carter did only position drills and didn’t participate in other aspects of the pro-day workout. He didn’t finish the position drills and reportedly was “cramping up and breathing heavily,” per an ESPN report.

Carter didn’t work out at the combine in Indianapolis.

Remember, Carroll’s Seahawks have spent top draft choices on Frank Clark after he got kicked off Michigan’s team and jailed after a domestic-violence incident. On Malik McDowell, who had red flags galore and never played a down for Seattle. On Bruce Irvin, who later said he’s “supposed to be in jail or dead.”

The Seahawks have the fifth-overall choice in this draft April 27. It is only the second time in 27 years Seattle has owned a pick in the top five. They also have the 20th choice in round one this month.

This generational place in the draft is why Carroll and Schneider have been conspicuous in their interest of all the top prospects, unlike in all the other of the coach’s and general manager’s 13 previous drafts running the Seahawks. In the past month they were at the pro days for top quarterback prospects C.J. Stroud at Ohio State, Bryce Young at Alabama, Will Levis of Kentucky and Anthony Richardson at Florida.

Because of the supreme value of the position, it’s possible those four QBs are the first four players taken in this draft. It would take a team trading up with Arizona for the third pick for that to happen; the Cardinals are committed to recent top-overall pick Kyler Murray as their franchise quarterback.

If QBs go one through four this month, Seattle would have the entire defensive draft to pick from at five. That includes Will Anderson from Alabama, considered the top edge rusher in this class.

That also includes the top interior defensive lineman, another position of prime need for Seattle.

That’s why they are seeing and hearing all about what Carter is for themselves.

The Detroit Lions reportedly are also hosting Carter for a pre-draft visit. They pick right behind Seattle, at six.

Carroll has thoroughly enjoyed his and the Seahawks’ nationwide investigation of the prospects at the very top of this draft.

“Yeah, it has been a freakin’ blast,” Carroll told reporters last month at the NFL’s annual owners meetings in Phoenix. “It was so much fun to get out there. ...

“To be right in the middle of the football world right there, in the specter of this whole quarterback thing and the draft thing coming up and all, and to hit one after another after another, the three guys that we saw and the whole orchestration of it, the circus of it all, and the way they handled it, was just so impressive. And it was just really fun.”

The 71-year-old former USC coach said it was like he was back on the college recruiting road.

“It reminded me of old times, spring recruiting. We used to travel around and do the same kind of thing,” he said. “And it was great to be on the road with the staff and all. But most of all, it was the guys. They were really impressive under the most scrutiny and the most tension of having to come through, in the moment, everybody’s on you, cameras are everywhere.

“Different than a game. It’s not the same as a game. And to see them come through so well, so impressively, I thought it was really amazing. It was great.”