Dave Birkett

Detroit Free Press

There’s no bigger lottery ticket on the Detroit Lions roster right now than Alex Carter.

A third-round pick out of Stanford last year, Carter has all the physical tools to succeed as a cornerback in the NFL, but he missed his entire rookie season with an ankle injury and no one’s quite sure what to expect from him this fall.

“We’re not expecting miracles,” Lions coach Jim Caldwell said at the NFL’s annual spring meetings last week. “But we certainly are expecting him to improve.”

Carter barely practiced with the Lions last spring because of academic commitments after the draft, then he sprained his ankle at the start of training camp in July.

He returned to the field in August, but was shut down days later with a bone bruise in his ankle. And he spent the season on injured reserve, able to practice for only three weeks in November.

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Caldwell said this off-season is shaping up to be a “very, very important” one for Carter, who’s just 21 years old but has no clear path to playing time in a secondary that returns Darius Slay, Nevin Lawson and Quandre Diggs as its top three cornerbacks.

“It’s going to be a big year for him,” Caldwell said. “Alex will get an opportunity to go through the workout programs, the lifting, all of those things. The teaching from a ground level. Last year he wasn’t there because of obviously finishing up school. So I think all across the board it’s going to be huge for him.”

Ideally, the Lions would like for Carter to play well enough that he can be a backup cornerback to Slay and Lawson on the outside.

For now, special teams star Johnson Bademosi is penciled in as the Lions’ No. 4 corner, though the team has kicked the tires on several other veterans and still could add to the position through the draft.

Bademosi, who left Stanford the year Carter arrived, said Carter has the potential to be “a great player, especially when he’s healthy.” And Caldwell said he’s looking forward to finally seeing Carter on the field.

“He’s got talent, he’s got ability and he’s a big corner,” Caldwell said. “And he comes from a very, very challenging environment, both athletically and academically. Yeah, I’m hopeful that this will be a great off-season for him.”

Contact Dave Birkett at dbirkett@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @davebirkett

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