{"id":730679,"date":"2026-06-28T07:38:17","date_gmt":"2026-06-28T07:38:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/730679\/"},"modified":"2026-06-28T07:38:17","modified_gmt":"2026-06-28T07:38:17","slug":"ny-giants-top-10-most-important-players-no-5-olb-abdul-carter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/730679\/","title":{"rendered":"NY Giants\u2019 top 10 most important players: No. 5 \u2014 OLB Abdul Carter"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">Abdul Carter did not have the rookie season the New York Giants dreamed about when they made him the No. 3 overall pick in the 2025 NFL Draft.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">Carter wasn\u2019t horrible in his rookie season. He just wasn\u2019t Micah Parsons or Will Campbell, which is the kind of player the Giants believed they were drafting.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">Carter\u2019s season was most notable for the two late-season benchings he received from interim head coach Mike Kafka. One benching was for missing a walk-through practice. The second benching was for missing a special teams meeting.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">Various reports indicated that these types of issues had cropped up throughout the season for Carter, who was just 21 years old at the start of his rookie year. They had apparently gone unchecked by then-coach Brian Daboll.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">Carter played better after the benchings, getting 3.5 of his 4.0 sacks and 11 of his 23 quarterback hits over the final five games.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">Carter checks in at No. 5 on our list of the \u201810 most important Giants players of 2026\u2019.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">Because the possibility that he can become the game-wrecking, top-tier edge defender the Giants drafted him to be still exists. If Carter reaches that level, that changes the ceiling for the Giants\u2019 defense.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">Carter\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/JustinPenik\/status\/2070509648545763399\" rel=\"nofollow\">advanced metrics<\/a> were far more encouraging than his middling sack total:<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">More maturity and understanding of the work involved in being a professional should help Carter turn pressure into real production. Outside linebackers coach Charlie Bullen is encouraged by what he has seen from Carter.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">\u201cHe\u2019s off to a great start,\u201d Bullen said at the end of the offseason program. \u201cThe mode of operation is the biggest thing that you can look at at this point in the prep for the season.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">\u201cJust how he\u2019s been in meetings and how he\u2019s been working, and then how it all translates to the field. It\u2019s been improved. There\u2019s a lot of growth there. I\u2019m excited about where he can go.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Abdul Carter did not have the rookie season the New York Giants dreamed about when they made him&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":730680,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[63],"tags":[81822,25565,349,99],"class_list":["post-730679","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-new-york-giants-analysis","tag-new-york-giants-roster","tag-nfl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/730679","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=730679"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/730679\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/730680"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=730679"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=730679"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=730679"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}