Abdul Carter Aims to Make His Own Name With Giants

Abdul Carter has long been attached to defensive greatness but seeks to create a bit of his own with the New York Giants.

NFL Commissioner points out New York Giants fans to edge rusher Abdul Carter after the Giants select Carter with the third pick during the first round of the 2025 NFL Draft on Thursday, April 24, 2025, at Lambeau Field in Green Bay, Wisconsin. The draft runs through April 26. Tork Mason/USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin / Tork Mason / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

New York Giants outside linebacker Abdul Carter’s dream has come true.

The 6-foot-3, 251-pound Penn State product revealed during the draft that he had a dream when he was around 12 or 13 years old that he was going to become a Giant. Lo and behold, that dream has materialized as the young man gets ready to begin what he hopes is a long and prosperous career in Giants blue. 

“I feel like everything happens for a reason, and me having that dream – everything happens for a reason. This is where I was meant to be,” he said. 

“All of the emotions definitely hit me when I hugged my mom, hugged my dad, my aunt--all of the people that really helped me get to this moment.” 

Carter’s next dream is to chase the greatness set by Hall of Fame Giants linebacker Lawrence Taylor. 

Taylor wore the Giants uniform for his entire NFL career and was so dominant that some of the game’s finest coaching minds during his era, like Joe Gibbs and Bill Wals, had to come up with new, innovative ways to minimize his impact on a game.  

Taylor’s greatness will probably never be matched, but it gives Carter something to aim for as he begins his first NFL season. But while Carter aspires to impact the game, he wants to do it on his own terms. 

"At the end of the day, I'm my own player, and I want to make my own name. That's what I've done," Carter told reporters during his formal introductory press conference on Friday. 

"I just play football at the end of the day. I just trust my teammates and hope my teammates trust me. At the end of the day, just play football."

It certainly didn't take long for Carter to do that in Happy Valley: he made his way into the Nittany Lions' starting lineup by the midway mark of his freshman year and never looked back, becoming a mainstay among the All-Big Ten teams. 

Now he's set to be a primary contributor in the Giants' rookie class, which will be expected to at least partly flip the team’s recent misfortunes.

Provided his development gets off to a strong start —he's already set to "hit the ground running" in Shane Bowen's system—uniting with Brian Burns and Kayvon Thibodeaux should place the Giants in a position to win physical slugfests that are slowly becoming fleeting memories in the modern NFL. 

Since Thibodeaux arrived, the Giants have been a perfect 6-0 when they allow 17 points or less, and they're a decent enough 7-6-1 when getting sizable pressure on at least 15 percent of opposing snaps.

For now, however, Carter will take things slow and let the process play, finding value in even the icebreakers that inevitably await on the tedious, if not vital, road ahead.

"It's a process. All that stuff is going to take work," Carter said. "I'm just going to start by getting here, getting to know the people around the building, getting to know my teammates, getting to know them as men. Then once we're on the field, just creating havoc as a defense." 

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