Abdul Carter Will Avoid Surgery For Stress Fracture, Remains Focused On Going First In NFL Draft

Penn State defensive end Abdul Carter is reportedly passing on a surgery to repair a stress fracture in his ankle. Carter is widely projected to be selected early in the first round of this year’s NFL Draft, but this injury casts a shadow over that future.

Carter already announced that he would not do drills at the NFL Combine, and it’s unclear if that decision was made with his injury in mind. After the injury was revealed, he had two options: get the surgery and miss several months on the field, or prove to teams that he doesn’t need it. 

Both moves could have hurt his draft stock. The surgery would have required inserting a screw in order to properly correct the fracture. Trying to play through it could dramatically increase the risk of aggravating the issue at a later point. Either way, injury concerns will be at the forefront of every team’s scouting report before they select him now. It’s another question for the star edge rusher to answer.

Avoiding surgery gives Carter the chance to be selected first overall, which he has repeatedly stated as his goal going into rookie season. Regardless of his choice, he likely would have been selected in the first 10 picks, but avoiding a procedure keeps his lofty ambitions intact.

“You can’t stop GREATNESS!” Carter posted on social media after the announcement. “Y’all thought I was going that easy? This just gonna make the movie more interesting!”

In his third season at Penn State, Carter earned 12 sacks and 68 combined tackles in 16 games. He was a core member of a Penn State team that advanced to the semifinals of the College Football Playoffs and is widely considered the best defensive player in this year’s draft.