New York Giants 2025 Training Camp Preview: OLB Abdul Carter

The Giants’ first-round pick Abdul Carter is set to impact but also potentially disrupt the pass rushing hierarchy in his debut season.

New York Giants OLB Abdul Carter | Chris Pedota, NorthJersey.com / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Nearly a decade and a half ago, the New York Giants were a scrappy team that snuck into the postseason with a 9-7-1 record and made a valiant run, thanks to the strength of their defensive line, to an unforeseen championship title in Super Bowl XLVI. Now, they’ll be looking to find that pass-rushing fire again and at least turn some heads with a talented group ahead of the 2025 season.

Except this time around, there will be a promising rookie player joining the sacks party in former Penn State outside linebacker Abdul Carter. The Giants have made an effort to stack their front lines with experienced pieces to get after the quarterback, but now they will ask their No. 3 overall pick to join the effort and leave an early impact.

While there was little doubt the Giants could have taken a quarterback with their first pick of the draft, the strength of the class just didn’t poke at the Joe Schoen-Brian Daboll regime’s fancy, and it was clear that Carter was arguably the best overall prospect that they could have snagged at their elite position on the board. 

The presence of Carter not only makes New York’s defensive front scarier on paper but gives them a versatile weapon that can be placed at several spots along the line of scrimmage. He also poses a potential threat to the current hierarchy of the room if he excels to a point that makes it too difficult to limit his snaps.

The Giants’ core of pass rushers seems to be held down by Dexter Lawrence II and fellow outside linebacker Brian Burns, who were the top two sack creators on the team last season. After them, one battle to watch out for is that between Carter and Kayvon Thibodeaux, whose future with the franchise is not solidified past the 2026 season. 

The Giants must figure out if the veteran and former first-round pick can reclaim the level of dominance that they saw from his career-setting campaign two years ago. If not, then Carter will have his chance to take over and show he is the new member of the team’s core three pass rushers for the road ahead. 

It’s going to be an interesting situation to watch unfold as the Giants draw closer to training camp and the 2025 season. The only thing’s for certain is that the organization doesn’t plan on letting their new edge rusher sit back and take notes from his veteran peers; he’s going to be thrown into the fire immediately.

---

Abdul Carter, OLB 

• Height: 6-3
• Weight: 252 lbs
• Exp.: R
• School: Penn State
• How Acquired: D1-‘25

---

2024 in Review 

Jan 9, 2025; Miami, FL, USA; Notre Dame Fighting Irish quarterback Riley Leonard (13) runs the ball pressured by Penn State Nittany Lions defensive end Abdul Carter (11) in the second half in the Orange Bowl at Hard Rock Stadium. | Nathan Ray Seebeck-Imagn Images

Like other edge-rushing greats who have come from the Nittany Lions program, Abdul Carter’s game exploded in his final season at the school. He continuously worked on improving his pass-rushing efficiency as part of his journey to becoming the second-highest-graded player at his position in terms of pressuring the quarterback. 

Carter earned a 92.4 PFF pass-rush grade in 582 total snaps last season, 285 coming in that mode of defense. In that span, he amassed a career-high 52 pressures, including 32 hurries, eight hits, and 12 sacks, bringing his total sacks over his three-year stint with Penn State to 24 sacks among 94 pressures. 

In his first two years, the 21-year-old played more of an inside linebacker role within the box before getting pushed out to the edge of the front lines in his senior year. Carter had 502 of his snaps come at the nose of the football and 488 as a standup rusher outside of the tackle. The Giants will look to utilize that versatility to send a bunch of different looks at the opposing quarterback, especially on late downs.

Another area where Carter could have an advantage in the room is his prowess as a run defender, who can stuff the gaps with his speed and athleticism, which often catches the offensive line off guard. He recorded 31 tackles last fall and only missed on nine to record a career-best 73.8 run defense grade and has made at least 31 stops in all three seasons.

Some penalty issues need to be addressed–Carter had seven infractions in 2024–before he begins his NFL career so that he can be the impactful weapon the Giants have been scouting all offseason. He has been a constant problem for the enemy to handle. If he can bring that almost effortless pass disruption to New York, he can quickly etch his name into the history books as one of the Giants’ brightest edge defenders ever.

Contract/Cap Info

Almost a month to the date of the Giants drafting him with the third pick in Green Bay, the franchise finally handed Abdul Carter his official rookie contract. The pact with the novice edge rusher is for four years and $45.3 million, including a fifth-year club option for the 2029 NFL season. 

Carter’s deal only entails $4.2 million in base salary over the life of the contract ($840,000 in 2025), and he has a $29.552 million prorated signing bonus and a $11.5 million prorated roster bonus that kicks into effect at the start of the 2026 season. 

Carter will carry a $8.228 million cap number against the Giants’ cap space, and that number will grow by about $2 million each year until the 2028 season. 

It almost seems unfathomable that Carter would fail to see the field with the team as a result of being cut following training camp. Still, it would cost the Giants $23.09 million in dead money charges while only saving $14.86 million toward their cap space.

2025 Preview

The Giants are going to make sure that Abdul Carter poses an immediate threat from Week 1 onward, pending he avoids any serious injuries in camp that would create an early setback for the rookie edge rusher. 

He has the young energy and plays with the relentless motor that the defense needs to become a force in the league. It shouldn’t take long for him to land one in the sack column and begin what is hopefully an abundant career of putting the quarterback on his back. 

Defensive coordinator Shane Bowen will come up with different ways to get as many of his talented pass rushers on the field at once. Having Carter in his lineup will enable the Giants to push the majority of their players into the middle and set up the rookie for potential one-on-one matchups with the offensive tackle that Carter dominated so many times at Penn State.

The only thing Carter needs to focus on is ensuring his tireless quality of play doesn’t hurt the team in the form of penalties that can result from delayed hits or jumping the gun off the snap. 

If he can do that, it’s going to be hard for opponents to focus on all four of the Giants’ elite pass rushers at once, and it wouldn’t be a surprise if Carter erupts to notch at least half of his 2024 production as he takes the professional gridiron for the first time. 

Down the line, his presence might create potential competition with Kayvon Thibodeaux, who needs to get back to the 11.5 sack campaign he had in 2023 if he wants to convince the Giants to keep him among the group for the long haul and not make him the latest incumbent to lose their job to an incoming novice.

JOIN US ON SOCIAL MEDIA! Follow and like us on Facebook. Don't forget to check out our YouTube channel. And if you want to send a letter to our mailbag, you can do so here.