NY Giants’ Plan for Abdul Carter Coming into Focus

There will be plenty of opportunity for Abdul Carter to get on the field, but for the time being, there appears to be a scaled down plan in place.

New York Giants linebacker Abdul Carter (51) participates in a drill during minicamp at Quest Diagnostics Training Center. / John Jones-Imagn Images

Eventually, New York Giants OLB Abdul Carter, the third overall pick in the 2025 NFL Draft, will be an every-down, every-snap kind of player because he’s just too good to leave on the bench regardless of the reason.

But for the time being, Carter, who has been lining up all over the defense for the Giants during their OTAs and mandatory minicamp, appears to be looking at a smaller role as part of a rotation as he continues his transition from college to the NFL, with the rookie appearing in some sub packages with Kayvon Thibodeaux and Brian Burns.

So claims Giants outside linebackers coach Charlie Bullen when asked how the coaches intend to get Carter, Burns, and Thibodeaux on the field simultaneously.

“We gotta have a bread-and-butter,” Bullen said Wednesday before the team went through its final mandatory minicamp practice. “We're gonna have two guys on the field as our base starting point, and they're just gonna rotate.”

A rotation would benefit the Giants' outside linebackers, as it would help keep all three of them fresh, especially after seeing how both Burns and Thibodeaux dealt with injuries last year. 

But a rotation is just the tip of the iceberg as far as what the Giants are looking to do with three dominating pass rushers. 

“There's a lot of ways you can get all three of 'em out there,” Bullen said. “We will let that remain to be seen, but I think that the sweet spot for us as coaches and them as players, just keeping it efficient to where they're still maximized, they're doing what they're good at, at you, knowing it's not overload where it's too much, but also having a schematic advantage to where we're taxing the offense.”

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Carter will get a chance to do it all in due time

Carter, Bullen revealed, has been a full-time presence in the team’s outside linebacker room, even though, at times this spring, the rookie has taken some snaps at inside linebacker. ‘

When the time comes for Carter to sit in with the inside linebackers, Bullen doesn’t believe that the additional work should be too much of an overload, given his prior experience at the position at Penn State.

“There's a little bit of a difference in terms of how they approach the blockers when you're rushing on the edge, they're a little more on the edge, you know, rushing on the inside,” Bullen said. 

“They gotta clear a little bit more of the body, but we train a bunch of different techniques, and there's some transfer to when we're working edge moves, and then when we transition 'em inside, there's some carryover there. But there's some other things that we have to work on, and we have and we will.”

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