Abdul Carter’s rookie year with the Giants gave the team plenty to like and one number to stare at all offseason.
The No. 3 overall pick piled up 66 total quarterback pressures in 2025, according to PFF, which ranked 11th among qualified NFL edge defenders. He turned that into just four sacks. That split tells the whole story of Carter’s first season: the disruption was there, the finishing touch lagged behind.
The underlying production was strong enough to put him in pretty rare company for a first-year pass rusher. Carter posted an 84.5 PFF pass-rush grade, 10th among 115 qualified edge defenders, and a 74.7 overall PFF grade across 17 games. His pressure total included 18 quarterback hits and 43 hurries, and it earned him a place on the PFWA All-Rookie Team.
What made those numbers stand out was the way Carter got them. When the Giants put him on an island in 2025, his first step regularly beat NFL tackles off the snap.
These weren’t manufactured wins or scheme-driven freebies. He was beating starters with burst and timing, the kind of traits that travel.
The sacks, though, didn’t keep pace.
Carter’s four sacks were the stat that looked light next to everything else. He hit the quarterback 18 times and got home only four times, which is why the conversation around him now centers on conversion rate rather than production.
The pressure was the signal that the talent is already real. The sack total was the reminder that rookies still have to learn how to finish.
His season also had a clear arc. Carter had about half a sack through his first 12 games before a multi-sack run in December changed the shape of his final month.
That early stretch muted the counting stats, but it didn’t change the bigger picture: his rush metrics kept moving in the right direction all year. By the end, he was winning cleaner and finishing more often, which is exactly the version the Giants expected when they took him third overall.
Carter will now try to turn that pressure profile into a bigger sack total in Year 2, and he’ll do it wearing No. 3 in 2026. He’ll be part of a front that also includes Kayvon Thibodeaux and Brian Burns, giving the Giants enough edge talent to keep him fresh and create the one-on-one chances his burst can exploit.
His first full training camp under John Harbaugh opens with rookies reporting to The Greenbrier on July 23 and veterans on July 28. Defensive coordinator Dennard Wilson’s pressure-heavy approach should give Carter plenty of chances to attack, and the offseason focus is obvious: keep the same disruption, turn more of it into sacks.
The Giants already know Carter can get there. Year 2 is about making sure he finishes.
In Other News...
Giants CB2 Battle Just Took A Turn Bigger Names Wont Like
The Giants competition for the second outside cornerback job has already been one of the more interesting camp battles on the roster, with Paulson Adebo, Greg Newsome II, Colton Hood and Deonte Banks all in the mix. Newsome has the edge on paper because of his experience, and the Giants have made clear they want real competition at a position theyve invested in heavily with multiple draft picks.
Art Green is the latest name to surface in the conversation, which adds another wrinkle to a race that already had a few. Mostly known for his work on special teams, Green is now at least being mentioned as someone to watch, and that alone says plenty about how open the Giants want this job to remain as the summer unfolds. [Read more 🡒]
Giants May Have Finally Found The Answer Chicago Gave Up On
The Giants spent the offseason looking for more speed and steadiness at linebacker, and Tremaine Edmunds gives them a proven answer on paper. His size, range and experience should fit a defense that has been searching for more consistency in the middle, and his track record of piling up tackles suggests he can handle a heavy workload right away.
There is also a developmental angle here that could matter just as much for New York in the long run. Edmunds arrives with the kind of veteran presence that can help settle the room while the Giants sort out how their younger linebackers fit, and the hope is that his arrival raises the floor for a unit that needed a reset. What happens next will depend on whether the fit on the field matches the promise of the move. [Read more 🡒]
Giants Face A Defining Question Around Jaxson Dart And This Offense
The Giants 2026 offense is shaping up as one of the more interesting internal tests in the league, because the future of Jaxson Dart is tied to how well Matt Nagy, Brian Callahan and Greg Roman can blend their ideas into something coherent. Dart is still the centerpiece of the conversation, and the organization is clearly trying to build an environment that helps him grow rather than burying him under a system that asks too much too soon.
There is also a little edge to the evaluation around him, since Dart was left out of ESPNs annual survey of top quarterbacks and did not draw a vote from league executives, coaches or scouts. For a young passer trying to establish himself, that kind of omission can linger, and it only adds to the pressure on a staff that has to turn all that offensive input into real progress while the rest of the roster, from Kayvon Thibodeaux to Tyler Nubin, keeps trying to push the team forward. [Read more 🡒]