NFL Weighs In On Carter

The place is nearly empty when Andre Carter strolls into his favorite Berkeley eatery, a Chinese restaurant a mile or so off the Cal campus.

A waiter rushes to the door to greet the All-America defensive end, one of the establishment's favored customers. The kitchen staff snaps to attention, and within a few minutes, Carter has enough food sitting before him to feed a family.

Carter sets about strip-mining his lunch, hoping against hope that it might add a few ounces to his cast-iron frame. 

"I don't really have any fat, so when I started training, I was burning muscle," Carter said, explaining his 249-pound weigh-in at the NFL Combine in Indianapolis two months ago. 

Though his weight took scouts by surprise and may have tainted his stock for some teams, there is unanimous agreement that the San Jose-Oak Grove alum is about to become Cal's eighth first-round pick since 1993. A check of 17 mock drafts conducted by the Bergen (N.J.) Record showed Carter going as early as No. 8 to the Chicago Bears (according to The Sporting News) and as late as No. 24 to the Denver Broncos. 

The sculpted, 6-foot-4 rush end who believes he'll be selected "in the top 10 for sure," hopes to know whose uniform he'll be wearing by the time his former teammates conclude their annual Blue-Gold skirmish at Memorial Stadium on Saturday morning. 

"People are being critical of his weight, but the guys in this league who can rush the quarterback don't carry a lot of weight," said one NFL pro personnel executive. "This guy's a pro player. He's got explosive quickness, and he can rush. I think he's the best end in the draft. Clearly, he should be a top 10 pick. Whether he goes there or not, I don't know."

Carter's weight at Indianapolis was a tactical mistake. A year ago, Alameda-based trainer Thomas Weatherspoon helped slice two-tenths of a second off the 40-yard dash time of Cal All-America cornerback Deltha O'Neal. That vaulted O'Neal -- largely viewed as a second-rounder -- into the middle of the first round, where the Broncos snatched him with the 15th selection. Carter enlisted Weatherspoon's services to train for this year's Combine.

But the grueling pool and treadmill workouts designed to increase speed and flexibility took a toll on Carter's weight at a time when many teams were already considering him a candidate to play outside linebacker. As it turned out, Carter passed on the 40 in Indianapolis, but his vertical jump of 38.5 inches and an 11-foot long jump undoubtedly repaired a lot of perceptions. 

"It's funny now to hear people taking shots at how much Andre weighs," said Cal coach Tom Holmoe, who earned three Super Bowl rings as a 49ers defensive back. "Some of these NFL guys, they think they have him pegged. But if somebody passes on him because they perceive him as 10 pounds too light, they deserve to lose their job."

By any criteria not involving a scale, Carter appeals to be an ideal draft prospect.

Thrown into the breach as a starter just five games into his freshman year, the Bears' most celebrated defensive recruit of the 1990s lived up to even the loftiest of the expectations that accompanied his matriculation to Berkeley. He started 39 consecutive games and never missed a practice. In the past two seasons, despite routinely fighting off double teams, he scarcely came off the field.

Carter forged a legacy in the weight room, was diligent in the classroom and stuck around Cal for his senior season,  even though some draftniks projected him a first-rounder in 2000. He refused to get caught up in trash talking, and despite Cal's pervasive losing (the Bears won just nine Pac-10 games during his four-year run), Carter never uttered a disparaging word about a coach or teammate -- or an opponent for that matter -- to the media.

Though he set the school's career sacks record with 30.5, Carter neither lorded over nor strutted away from a fallen opposing quarterback. In four seasons, the closest he came to an act of showmanship was the postgame victory lap he and fellow defensive lineman Jacob Waasdorp took around the Los Angeles Coliseum after the Bears' third consecutive victory over USC in October.

"The guy's a perfect pick" said classmate Reed Diehl, Cal's jack-of-all-trades offensive lineman over the past four seasons. "He has all the physical and mental capabilities. He's not a guy who's going to get into trouble off the field. He doesn't have anything to hide. He has no bad characteristics."

Said Carter's mother, Diane: "I can honestly say that Andre has never been in an ounce of trouble. He still likes to take his bowl of cereal and watch cartoons on Saturday morning." 

Moreover, Carter is schooled in the art of professionalism. Hi father, Rubin "Hurricane" Carter, had a 12-year career as the nose tackle for the Denver Broncos. After serving the last two seasons as the Washington Redskins' defensive line coach, the elder Carter two months ago accepted the same position on the staff of freshly appointed New York Jets coach Herm Edwards. Andre will monitor the draft from his father's home in Laurel, Md. 

"I feel like a bird flying away from its nest," Carter said of his imminent departure from Berkeley after saying his good-byes to the staff at the Chinese restaurant. "I'm going to miss the diversity. Something always comes up out of the blue in this town: a rally, a protest, naked people walking around, the crazy hobos."

He my not fly far. Carter has conducted private workouts at the facilities of just two teams -- the Atlanta Falcons, who pick fifth, and the 49ers, who have the No. 9 selection and are in dire need of an outside pass rusher to complement the inside game of defensive tackle Bryant Young. 

If Carter winds up across the bay, his agent, Marvin Demhoff, is likely to secure for him a signing bonus in the $6-7 million range. 

Which means he may not have to abandon his favorite lunch spot, after all. And he'll likely be leaving even more generous tips.