4 things to know: Bills draft pick DT DeWayne Carter
ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. (WIVB) — The Bills restocked another thin position with their third pick of the 2024 NFL Draft, selecting Duke defensive tackle DeWayne Carter at No. 95.
Buffalo’s trade down in Thursday night’s first round with the Kansas City Chiefs put them in position to draft the high-motor, 6-foot-2, 302-pound Carter near the end of the third. They moved up 38 spots from the fourth round as compensation for dropping down from 28 to 32.
Here are four things to know about the big fella.
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‘The intelligence factor’
Carter received the Jack Tatum Award as the top student-athlete in the ACC in 2023, and he was a finalist for the William V. Campbell Award, considered to be the academic Heisman.
“He’s smart,” general manager Brandon Beane said. “He’s going to make everybody around him. He’s a tough dude. Just, you know, leader, three-year captain, DNA, intangibles. He’s going to make the guys around him better.”
Those traits should help Carter got on the field as a rookie, Beane said, as a rotational D-lineman behind entrenched starters Ed Oliver and DaQuan Jones.
“He’s going to be plug and play in my mind,” Beane said. “
“Sometimes you can find guys that really have that niche inside to call games and things like that. I don’t want to say he’s got that today. But that’s something that he can do. He has the intelligence factor. …
“The guy plays hard, relentless motor. A lot of the DNA that we look for in our defensive line, defensive tackle, per se.”
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Old reliable
Carter was a team captain for three of his five seasons at Duke, and he showed durability in starting 52 games. He will turn 24 during his rooke season, and the Bills GM said Carter was “mature beyond his years.”
“It always started with me wanting to learn,” Carter said. “I was an education minor, and I actually want to teach and kind of stems from my parents and their background a little bit as well. But I’m always about learning. I feel like, learning, you gotta be a really good listener, right? And that’s something I learned as a young age, and so my leadership style always starts there, like, I mean, day one I’m gonna come in there, trying to listen and learn and talk to all the vets and all the guys really been through everything.”
Carter was a plaintiff in the lawsuit against the NCAA seeking student-athlete compensation. But he resisted the opportunity to cash out of the transfer portal.
“We went through a lot at Duke,” he said. “It was a real rollercoaster ride and when I came in, NIL was basically hot off the press and as a kid who was having success, right? I have all these, the temptations offered to me for money, quote unquote bigger opportunities, everything else, and I just had to stay, and I think that’s just a tribute to our locker room and how close we all are and what loyalty and everything really means us in that program.”
Patiently waiting
Carter’s inquisitive nature came across when the time came for the Bills to pick late Friday night and Beane reached out on the phone.
“He politely asked me what took us so long to call him,” Beane said. “He did it in a nice way. So, I said we were just waiting for the right moment.”
Carter had a feeling from early in the draft process that Buffalo could be his destination. But it was an anxious wait to hear his name called.
“As the day went on and we got in the 90s, I said, I’m going to have to wake up tomorrow and turn on the draft,” Carter said. “You get a little bit down in the dumps and I kept on looking at Buffalo, like, I said, they’re going to come and get me, they’re going to come and get me. And I kind of laid back on the couch and felt the couch vibrate and I think my exact words were, oh my god. It’s really happening.”
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Bloodlines
Paternal grandfather Ray Carter played running back and set sprinter records at Youngstown State in the 1950s, earning a place in the school’s athletics Hall of Fame. His father DeWayne Sr. was a running back for Ohio State, while uncle Raymond was a running back for Notre Dame and uncle John played offensive line at Western Kentucky.
“Just from the genes, my pedigree, I kind of hit the lottery,” Carter said. “I got lucky on that one.”
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Jonah Bronstein joined the WIVB squad in 2022 as a digital sports reporter. The Buffalonian has covered the Bills, Sabres, Bandits, Bisons, colleges, high schools and other notable sporting events in Western New York since 2005, for publications including The Associated Press, The Buffalo News, and Niagara Gazette. Read more of his work here.
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