54 yards and a touchdown would be considered a fairly ho-hum day for Delone Carter in a regular season game for Syracuse. In the East-West Shrine Game, those are MVP-caliber numbers.
Carter was indeed named the Most Valuable Player of the Shrine Game this past weekend and officially elevated his status for the NFL Draft.
Syracuse running back Delone Carter ran for a touchdown and was selected the offensive MVP in the East’s 25-8 victory over the West on Saturday in the East-West Shrine Game.
Carter finished with 54 yards on 11 carries, while Virginia Tech’s Tyrod Taylor had the best passing day for the East, going 4 of 5 passes for 59 yards.
Todd McShay thinks that Carter is looking at the fourth-round right now.
Of all the running backs here, Carter showed the most quickness and was the most consistent runner. While he still has weaknesses in his game -- he dances around too much at times and is not a great pass catcher -- he runs hard. He's very competitive and fights for extra yards. Much more than we saw on tape, he also showed a good initial burst to turn the corner. We gave him a fourth-round grade off game tape and if nothing else, he showed he is worth of being picking in the mid-rounds after this week.
Carter and Ryan Bartholomew were starters in the game. Barty even took some time to unleash a few shotgun snaps, confusing Syracuse fans everywhere.
The third Orange on the roster, Doug Hogue, did not play. I haven't yet found an official injury report or any other reason as to why he didn't play but we'll keep an eye on it.
Finally, proving that their is nothing at all creepy about the business of draft analysis, here's the NFL Network’s Mike Mayock and his assessment of DC3:
"He’s got a big old bubble butt," Mayock said. "He’s real strong from the waist down. He breaks tackles."
Eyes up here, Mayock.