Abdul Carter didn’t deliver the kind of rookie numbers that usually come with being taken No. 3 overall in the 2025 NFL Draft, but NFL.com is already betting on a much bigger Year 2.
Kevin Patra recently tabbed Carter as the Giants’ non-quarterback MVP candidate, pointing to the edge rusher’s underlying impact even if the sack total lagged behind the hype. Carter finished his first season with four sacks, yet he still led the Giants with 72 QB pressures, which ranked seventh in the league, along with a 15.4 percent QB pressure rate.
Patra also noted that Carter’s best stretch came late, with 3.5 of those four sacks arriving over the final five weeks. With more experience and a stronger start off the line, Patra wrote that Carter should be in line for bigger production in 2026, especially with the Giants upgrading the environment around new defensive coordinator Dennard Wilson.
Carter picked up another nod from NFL.com when Nick Shook named him to the site’s All-Under 25 team. Shook highlighted how Carter came into the league with major expectations, then spent much of his rookie year outside the national spotlight despite what he called a strong debut campaign.
The numbers back that up: Carter’s 72 pressures ranked seventh in the NFL, just five behind Myles Garrett, and he finished fifth in Defensive Rookie of the Year voting. Shook’s bottom line was simple - if Carter turns more of those pressures into sacks, his profile will rise quickly.
He also pointed out that Carter turns 23 in October.
That’s the part Giants fans are hanging onto. The production wasn’t eye-popping on the surface, but the talent showed up in plenty of other ways.
The late-season improvement matters, and so does the fact that the Giants now have an experienced head coach in place to help keep Carter on track after the well-documented issues last season with being late or missing practices and meetings entirely. If the maturity catches up to the ability, Carter has the look of a player ready to break out.
In Other News...
Brian Burns Sounds Off On Giants Unit Fans Have Waited For
The Giants have spent plenty of time trying to turn their pass rush into a true weekly problem for opposing offenses, and the pieces are finally lined up in a way that makes the conversation feel different. Brian Burns arrives as the headliner after leading the NFC with 16.5 sacks and earning second-team All-Pro recognition, while Kayvon Thibodeaux and Abdul Carter give New York a trio with enough talent to make edge rusher one of the most intriguing parts of the roster.
Burns was asked whether he has confidence in the group, and the answer came quickly. Thibodeaux is heading into a contract year after a rough season, Carter showed real pressure production as a rookie but still has to turn that into more finishes, and the whole unit is expected to be one of the Giants biggest strengths in 2026. The question now is whether the talent on paper can finally become the kind of consistent disruption this defense has been waiting for. [Read more 🡒]
Giants Camp Is Already Creating Winners Losers And Real Roster Pressure
The Giants second training camp practice looked more like a real football day than a summer tuneup, with the team going full speed in competitive drills and letting the roster sorting start early. Abdul Carter, Braxton Berrios, Malik Nabers and Kayvon Thibodeaux all showed up in ways that mattered, while rookie Sisi Mauigoa was already getting the traditional first-year treatment that comes with camp. For a team trying to sharpen its depth chart, those early reps are doing more than filling a practice log.
There were also the kinds of moments that make camp feel like a live audition, with some players helping themselves and others leaving work to do. Ben Barten and Theo Johnson were among the names who struggled, and the pressure is only going to build as the Giants keep stacking these padded practices and sorting out who can handle the speed, the contact and the expectations. Malik Nabers, coming off the knee injury that shaped his rookie year, is part of that bigger picture too, because the standard around him is already rising. [Read more 🡒]
Giants Fans Have Every Right To Hate This Holland Delpit Comparison
The Giants spent last offseason trying to patch a hole at safety after Xavier McKinney left in 2024, and Jevn Holland was the player they chose to bring in on a three-year, $45.3 million deal. It was a bet on name value, upside and a fresh start in the secondary, but the comparison that keeps hanging over the move is hard to ignore when another safety from the same class of contract talk has looked far steadier.
Grant Delpits three-year, $48 million extension in Cleveland only sharpens the edge of it, because the money is close enough to invite the comparison and the on-field results have not been. Hollands 2025 season never matched the price tag, and the gap in production has made the Giants decision look even more costly, especially for a team that already watched McKinney walk and had hoped his replacement would settle the position instead of reopening the debate. [Read more 🡒]