Raiders Make a Big Splash: Raiders Add LB Carter to 53-Man Roster
The Las Vegas Raiders made an addition to their roster Wednesday morning. The Raiders signed linebacker Andre Carter II to the 53-man roster. They signed Carter off the Minnesota Vikings practice squad.
Carter was signed by the Vikings as an undrafted free agent last year. He made the Vikings 53-man roster last season. In his rookie season, Carter appeared in 12 games. He recorded two tackles and most of his playing time came on special teams. Carter did not make the Vikings roster coming out of training camp this season but he stayed in Minnesota by being signed to the Vikings practice squad.
Carter is a product out of West Point. At Army, Carter was one of the best college defensive players in the country. In his junior season, he was named third-team AP All-America. The first time Army had an All-American in 31 years. He also finished his Army career with 20 sacks, second all-time in school history. In 2022 he played ten games and had 41 tackles, 21 solo tackles, three and a half sacks, and seven tackles for loss.
Going into the 2023 NFL Draft, Carter was ranked second on most boards as the best outside linebacker coming out of college.
“You can’t keep him out of the film rooms, like a Peyton Manning or Tom Brady,” said Army defensive coordinator Nate Woody in 2022. “If there’s a session during practice that he’s not in, like a special teams session, he will disappear, having run upstairs to the office to watch what we’ve just done in defensive sessions. After every game, he comes into my office, and we sit down and dissect the film from the previous game … It’s a total awareness. And because of that he has that rare ability to affect what the opponent is doing. Next-level stuff.”
Carter will help the Silver and Black fill in the gaps on defense. The Raiders are running out of depth.
The Raiders have dealt with injuries all season long on the defensive side. Just on the defensive line alone, they have lost three starters. Defensive end Malcolm Koonce, defensive tackle Christian Wilkins, and one of the best defensive players in the NFL, Maxx Crosby. Koonce was lost for the season before the team’s first game. Wilkins was lost for the season before the bye week. And Crosby was done after Week 14.
