Moments after the Buffalo Bills used their third-round pick to select DeWayne Carter in the 2024 NFL Draft, as is customary, the new player jumped on a Zoom call for his first interview with western New York reporters.

However, he couldn’t hear what he was being asked because his family and friends were making a ruckus in the background, so Carter stood up and told everyone to simmer down, which they did.

It was a small thing, but it also showed the type of leadership ability that Carter possesses. Remember, his father DeWayne Sr., was a star player in the 1990s at Ohio State, and a man not to be trifled with, but the gathering went silent when DeWayne Jr. told them to.

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“This is a grown man,” general manager Brandon Beane said of the 23-year-old defensive tackle when he learned of that little tidbit. “I would say he is mature beyond his years, being around him through the process this spring and I think that shows right there. You’re always looking to add leaders to positions. He politely asked me what took us so long to call him - he did it in a nice way, so, I said we were just waiting for the right moment.”

It was exactly the type of leadership he showed during his career at Duke where he became the first three-year captain in the school’s football history, and it is an intangible that coach Sean McDermott believes will serve Carter well as he makes his way through his first NFL training camp in pursuit of not only a roster spot, but rotational regular season playing time.

“Good energy, smart football player,” McDermott said Monday morning before the team went through its first padded practice. “Very professional early on in his approach. Today is when it changes a little bit to some extent for the O-line and the D-line and I would venture to say for most rookies as well.

“It tiers up. When you’re in college, coming from high school, it tiers up. And then the same thing here, it tiers up college to the NFL, first practice, and it’ll ratchet up again in the first preseason game, the first regular-season game and on through the playoffs and the Super Bowl. That’s how it ramps up. There’s some grown men out there that are trying to put food on their table for their families.”

Make no mistake, Carter is ready to compete.

He grew up in a football family as not only did his father play, so did his grandfather (Notre Dame) and two uncles (Youngstown State and Western Kentucky). He admits the game was never forced on him - in fact, his father didn’t want him to play until ninth grade, but his mother insisted, saying, “Look, he’s not gonna suck when he gets to high school, he’s gonna need a couple years.”

So he started in the sixth grade, went on to a stellar high school career and had his choice of several scholarship opportunities before settling on Duke, a basketball school if there ever was one.

Carter − who made it perfectly clear that he never camped out to obtain basketball tickets like so many Duke students − actually never paid much attention to what was happening inside historic Cameron Indoor Arena, one of the most famous venues in America.

“I had a lot of friends that camped out; I’m not that level crazy,” he said. “My whole time there I went to maybe five or six games. I’m just not a big fan of being crunched in like sardines for the game. But, I loved those guys, though.”

While Coach K was guiding the Blue Devils into the NCAA Tournament and national championship chase just about every year, the football program was often overlooked, but that began to change during Carter’s time in Durham.

In his last two seasons, Duke went 9-4 and 8-5 and won a minor bowl game both years with Carter anchoring the defense.

“The first couple years I was there we weren’t very good,” he said. “The last few years though, it was getting up and it kept rolling and our team got a lot of attention. We sold out a lot of games, we had a field storm, a lot of big wins, we had (ESPN) Game Day there for the first time in history. So you talk about the basketball and football separation, but really, the last few years that really wasn’t a thing for us. Our students showed out for us every week and we put a good product on the field.”

Last year, Carter earned first-team All-ACC recognition and the combination of his performance and the obvious leadership he showed convinced the Bills to take the plunge.

“He’s going to be plug and play in my mind,” Beane predicted. “He’s smart, he’s a tough dude, DNA, intangibles. He’s going to make the guys around him better. We’ll see where he’s at.”

Plug and play might have been a reach, though. Carter is part of a depth chart that includes starters Ed Oliver and DaQuan Jones, plus veteran free agent signings Austin Johnson and DeShawn Williams. The Bills will likely keep all five, but five probably won’t be active on most game days which is to say Carter has a lot of work in front of him if he hopes to break through the logjam.

“I’m blessed to be in this position, I’m grateful they took me (in the third round) and how everything happened, but at the same time, like nobody cares where you’re drafted at,” Carter said. “I’m really not worried about being a good draft pick and what that means because at the end of the day I’m out here trying to prove myself and prove my worth to this team, prove that I can earn a role on this team and be a factor for this defense.”

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This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: DeWayne Carter impressing Buffalo Bills with leadership and toughness