Michael Carter didn’t win the starting safety job, but he did enough this summer to make sure he won’t be standing on the sideline waiting for scraps.
That’s the real takeaway from his competition with Marcus Epps. Epps came out on top, yet Carter’s performance in camp and the preseason was strong enough to earn him a real role in the Eagles’ defense. For a player who could easily have faded into a backup-only lane, that matters.
“That's huge,” Carter said after practice Thursday. “I feel like that's what spring was for, what training camp was for, just to figure out where I could fit in and build that trust.
“There was no guarantee coming back (to the Eagles). I worked hard and built that trust with the coaches as well as my teammateswell.
I was confident that if I didn’t (win a starting job) I'd still be able to contribute in a meaningful way. And so that's what I'm looking forward to doing.”
Carter is in his sixth year out of Duke and arrived last season as a trade-deadline pickup in the deal that sent receiver John Metchie to the Jets. In eight games with the Eagles, he logged 106 defensive snaps and 65 on special teams.
He also agreed in March to a reworked contract rather than test free agency, with his cap number dropping from $10.1 million on the Jets deal to $1.42 million. That gave the Eagles a more manageable number and kept Carter in the mix.
The path to playing time got interesting because Carter has spent most of his career as a nickel corner, but that spot wasn’t open with Cooper DeJean around. So the Eagles started teaching him safety, a position that overlaps with nickel work but asks for a different skill set.
Epps looked like the favorite from the start, especially after he sat out all of the preseason games while Carter got 57 snaps. But Carter used those reps to show Vic Fangio and the rest of the staff that he could help right away.
“It was good,” he said. “I feel like just getting those reps, I feel like the preseason games were really good for me. It was a good opportunity to just get a feel for the game and the speed of everything.
“I didn't feel like any type of way as far as like playing those games. I knew it was just a good way to learn, a good way to grow and get better at a new position.
So I really felt like I improved every day, week to week and everything like that. That's all you can do, just get 1 percent better every day, and I thought playing in those games helped me do that.”
What makes Carter valuable is how many jobs he can handle. He can line up at safety, nickel and dime, and if the Eagles ever get desperate, he can even move outside to corner.
“The more you can do is always good for you,” Carter said.
Fangio sees the same thing. He made it clear that Carter will stay in the conversation at multiple spots and that the Eagles plan to use him wherever the matchups call for it.
“(Epps) was just solid the whole way through, but we still like Michael, and we have the ability to play him some there too. Michael's very versatile, can play nickel, can play dime, can play safety, and we plan on using him.”
How often that happens will vary. Some weeks Carter could be a major part of the defensive plan. Other weeks, he may mostly contribute on special teams with only a handful of defensive snaps.
Either way, he’s in a good place on a secondary packed with talent.
“It's great, man,” Carter said. “It's great and I feel like we can just kind of build off each other, pick each other up, and really do something special. We've got a lot of special guys, a lot of guys that have accomplished a lot of things already in the league.
“So we're super talented. And we’ve just got to be in our details, be disciplined, keep our trust and faith in one another and pick each other up. We can really do some special things.”
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