Kansas City Chiefs To Work Out Cris Carter’s Son On Wednesday

Wednesday, the Kansas City Chiefs will work out Duron Carter, son of sticky-handed Hall of Famer Cris Carter.

Per Bleacher Report’s Matt Miller, the 23-year-old also spent Tuesday running through drills for the Indianapolis Colts.

On the heels of visiting with the Chiefs, he’s booked to do the same with his dad’s former team, the Vikings, on Friday.

In football circles, CFLers tend to be stigmatized. Fairly? Probably not. But while the CFL and NFL reside in neighboring nations, their respective talents are worlds apart.

Some people log on to YouTube, click a “[name][year] CFL Highlights!!” link, watch two minutes of Player X looking like Tecmo Bowl Bo Jackson, close the tab and tweet that he’s the second coming of Willie Beamen. Then Weston McCluster Dressler comes into camp and U-turns back to Canada after the first wave of cuts.

This much is certain: Carter isn’t your typical CFL standout. Lack of focus, not talent, paved his path up north.

Exiting high school, the 4-star wideout earned a slot in the Rivals100, eventually signing with his father’s alma mater, Ohio State.

As a freshman, he recorded 13 receptions for 176 yards and a touchdown. However, he was later ruled academically ineligible and transferred to Coffeyville Community College—a three-hour drive from Kansas City.

He then made a pitstop at Alabama, where he was tagged academically ineligible a second time and suspended (for undisclosed reasons) by Nick Saban.

Finally, he transferred to Florida Atlantic. But after his request for a hardship waiver—which, had it been granted, would’ve allowed him to play immediately—was denied, Carter, instead of sitting out a season, chose to enter the 2013 draft.

Undrafted, he crossed the border and played two seasons for the Montreal Alouettes. (Per Google, an “Alouette” is a songbird, because Canada.)

To no surprise, Carter was a cut above the competition, which ultimately led to his ongoing NFL auditions.

He’s a 6’5, 205-pound receiver who, by local Sunday standards, touts above-average speed.

Judging by Troy Smith’s comments, though, there’s nothing common about Carter. The former Heisman winner told Cleveland.com’s Ari Wasserman:

"I’ve thrown to a lot of receivers, but I have never thrown to a guy as tall as he is and as rangy as he is that can do the small things as well as he can. …When I say the small things, I mean screens, the shallows, the out-and-ups – he does everything a Ginn Jr. can do, an Anthony Gonzalez can do, as well as a Calvin Johnson or a Larry Fitzgerald or an A.J. Green."

So we meet again, hype train.

Bleacher Report’s Joshua Gleason seems to be onboard as well:

"With his goal to get his forty yard dash time down to the low 4.4’s, he has ran a 4.49 while consistently running low 4.5’s. Duron has an 80-inch wingspan, which is longer than anybody measured in at the Senior Bowl last week. He also has a 35-inch vertical jump and a 10 feet, 4 inch broad jump, both quality marks. …One source who has been to the workouts said that he has looked just as impressive as Keenan Allen, who is generally regarded as the top receiver in the draft and a first round lock. Duron makes “better acrobatic catches” than Allen I was told, and if you look up some of the training on YouTube, you can see Duron making some incredible catches at times."

While acrobatic catches speak to potential, they mean little if they’re not complemented (see: Jon Baldwin). And considering that Allen, as a rookie, recorded more receiving yards and touchdowns than Carter did in either of his two CFL seasons, let’s tap the brakes.

That’s not to say Carter can’t crack an NFL roster or, for that matter, climb the ranks and eventually start. But getting a clean release and snatching contested grabs against Aqib Talib is a hair different than scorching Jacques Le Pew.

Regardless, Kansas City had a wideout, Frankie Hammond, who, throughout three starts and 16 games last year, snagged four receptions for 45 yards. Junior Hemingway, meanwhile, plucked 12 passes in 14 games.

The Chiefs aren’t in any position to be picky.

Should Carter open eyes on Wednesday, there’s a chance that John Dorsey—due to a suffocating amount of cap room—prints a “futures” contract by the end of the week.

However, even if he aces the workout, he’ll need to convince the GM that his past tendencies are just that.