The Eagles made Jalen Carter the highest-paid defensive tackle in the league this week and that deal was a lead topic of conversation at a Wednesday press conference from the team’s training camp.

One of the questions posed to General Manager Howie Roseman had to do with a report that the team was hesitant to extend the 2023 first-round pick. Carter pleaded no contest to street racing charges stemming from a crash that occurred before he was drafted and he was benched for part of a game in 2024 after being late for a meeting. Carter’s conditioning was questioned by defensive coordinator Vic Fangio ahead of last season and Carter was ejected in Week 1 for spitting on Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott.

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Roseman said he had not seen that report, but that the team went into the offseason hoping to get a deal done with Carter and said that there were no off-field issues that raised a red flag about committing to him for the long term.

“I don’t know what off-field concerns,” Roseman said, via a transcript from the team. “Since Jalen’s been here, he’s put his head down, he’s worked hard, and he’s made huge impact plays for this organization, for this team. Last year, he wasn’t 100 percent. He tried to fight through that and play through that. We understand that. Like anyone, when you’re 25 years old, you’re still growing as a person and as a player. I saw Zack Baun yesterday and he made a great comment. He said to me, ‘When I signed my contract, someone told me you don’t pay me for what I did, you’re paying me for what I’m going to do.’ And that’s why we do these deals. We don’t do anything based on retroactive performance; we’re doing things based on future performance. We were trying to sign Jalen in March, understood it was unique because of where the market was and where he thought and [Agent] Drew [Rosenhaus] thought it was going, but it was always positive and we were always trying to get him extended.”

Carter missed six games last season with shoulder injuries, but none of the issues that have cropped up outweighed what he’s shown the Eagles on the field over the last three years. Roseman is banking on that continuing to be the case and the bet is a big one for the Eagles.