The Buffalo Bills improved their defensive secondary dramatically last season, adding four new starters to a new scheme run by head coach Sean McDermott and defensive coordinator Leslie Frazier. With each NFL season comes turnover, so there are new battles to fight in terms of making the final roster.
In our latest profile for our “90 players in 90 days” series, we discuss an ACC player who went undrafted this past April.
Name: Ryan Carter
Number: 46
Position: CB
Height/Weight: 5’9” 184 lbs.
Age: 23
Experience: R
College: Clemson
Draft: Signed as an undrafted free agent with the Buffalo Bills following the 2018 NFL Draft
Financial situation (per Spotrac): Carter’s deal is standard for undrafted free agents—3 years and a total value of $1,710,000. If he makes the roster, he carries a cap hit of $480,000.
2017 Recap: As a senior at Clemson, Carter performed well. He made 33 total tackles and intercepted a career-high 3 passes for the Tigers. He also managed 10 passes defended in his senior year.
Positional outlook: Tre’Davious White, Vontae Davis, and Phillip Gaines appears to be the top-three at the position, with rookie fourth round draft choice Taron Johnson looking like the fourth corner initially. Breon Borders, Lafayette Pitts, and Levi Wallace are the other corners currently on the Bills’ roster.
2018 Offseason: Carter has attended all offseason activities thus far. He received some praise from Mark Gaughan of The Buffalo News at the close of minicamp.
2018 season outlook: Carter is easily the smallest of the Bills’ corners, which presumably limits him to slot duty. Former Bill Leonard Johnson is only an inch taller than Carter, so McDermott doesn’t seem to have any issues playing smaller corners so long as they are the best for the job. (Though he did let Johnson walk at the end of the season and he remains unsigned). However, Carter has a ton of competition at the position. He’ll have to make a huge impact in order to challenge for a roster spot. Carter is probably auditioning for a role on the practice squad or with another team for 2018.