Giants Rookie Lands on Pro Football Writers of America's All-Rookie Team

Abdul Carter finished his rookie campaign strong, but is only just getting started becoming the player his talents suggest he can be.

New York Giants linebacker Abdul Carter | Kevin R. Wexler-NorthJersey.com / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

New York Giants outside linebacker Abdul Carter’s solid rookie campaign, which ended with a strong finish, earned him a spot on the 2025 PFWA All-Rookie Team.

Carter, the third overall pick in the 2025 NFL Draft, finished with 72 quarterback pressures, seventh overall in the league per NextGen Stat, but first among rookie defenders.  

He also finished first in the league in quarterback quick pressures under three seconds with 48, five more than Broncos’ Pro Bowl linebacker Nik Bonitto.

Closer to home, Carter’s 2.22-second time to pressure and 3.89-second time-to-sack were the fastest of the Giants’ defenders.

Carter only managed to record 4.0 sacks, seven tackles for loss, and 23 quarterback hits, all of which were second on the Giants defense, behind fellow outside linebacker Brian Burns’s 16.5 sacks, 22 tackles for loss, and 31 quarterback hits. 

Carter recorded 3.5 sacks, six tackles for loss, and 15 of his quarterback hits in the team’s final five games of the season.

It wasn't all smooth sailing for Carter. He was benched twice over a three-week span by interim head coach Mike Kafka after violating team rules, the first benching for a series and the second one for a quarter.

Carter said his rookie campaign was a good learning experience about what he needs to do moving forward to become the player his talents suggest he’s capable of becoming.

“It's gonna be ups and downs in every season I have,” he told reporters the day after the Giants’ 2025 season ended. 

“I feel like this year I feel like a lot of people like to focus on the downs, but it was a lot of ups, so I'm gonna just focus on that and also at the same time, be able to correct myself when I had those downs to be able to keep getting better.”

Part of being better, he said, was to make sure he doesn’t slack off in the little things that might have sabotaged him earlier in the year. 

“Just doing things the right way,” he said. “I have to be the one to call things out, but I have to make sure that I'm doing things the right way myself.”

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