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It would be helpful to the crowd if the Giants just let Abdul Carter wear a red and white striped shirt among the sea of blue and white jerseys on the practice field.
The quarterbacks definitely wouldn’t complain.
“Where’s Waldo?” has been replaced by “Where’s Abdul?” in the rookie’s first training camp.
Carter’s versatility to slide from edge rusher to off-ball linebacker to three-technique defensive tackle depending on the formation has added a new wrinkle to the defense that is sure to further the league-wide comparisons being drawn to fellow Penn State product Micah Parsons.
“Until they get here, and you kind of see them move around and ultimately see how they handle it mentally, [you don’t know], ‘Can they pick it up? Do they have the instincts to do it?’ ” head coach Brian Daboll said. “He certainly has very, very good instincts as a football player.
“Some players do exactly what’s on the paper: ‘I run 12 yards, I stop, I turn.’ And then you have other players that are very instinctive players. ‘If I run to 12 yards and turn here, I’m going to be covered. Or if I do this, it’s not.’ He’s a little bit of a ‘see ball, get ball’ kind of guy.”
Parsons has settled in for the Cowboys as an edge rusher in the vein of other top sack threats like T.J. Watt, Myles Garrett and Trey Hendrickson. But he burst onto the scene in 2021 as a rookie who played more snaps in the box (540) than on the defensive line (390) en route to 13 sacks.
The Giants would sign up right now for duplication from Carter, whose explosiveness, intensity and slippery spin move was impossible to miss in Sunday’s practice. The No. 3 pick in the draft is only building more hype.
“I feel like pass rush is a science,” Carter said. “It’s like you’re playing basketball: Dribbling the ball, setting your moves up, setting up your counter. I have my own little style that I play like. Whatever I’m going to do, I’m going to make sure I do my job first, but just within the play.”
The Giants need defensive coordinator Shane Bowen to be a mad scientist, figuring out ways to maximize Carter, Brian Burns and Kayvon Thibodeaux.
Carter replaced a resting Brian Burns on Sunday and has bumped Thibodeaux to the second team at times in camp, but the best-11 approach to defense means putting all three on the field together.
That’s why Carter — who played inside linebacker at Penn State and was “running through gaps and chasing people down,” as Daboll said, until a position change last season — is the right fit in addition to being a potential game-changer. He had 24 tackles for loss and 12 sacks last season.
“It’s definitely a sign of respect,” Carter said of having extra responsibility put on his plate. “Anything my coaches need me to do, I’m going to do it to the best of my ability. I’ve been doing this since my freshman year of college, so I’m pretty much used to it.”
The offensive and defensive lines will battle in full pads Monday for the first time. It’s a chance for right tackle Jermaine Eluemunor to keep Carter from bending the edge with speed and center John Michael Schmitz to even the score for being put in a spin cycle and shoved to the turf.
“We get to be more physical — like play some real football now — so I can’t wait,” Carter said. “I feel like I perform best under pressure. I don’t shy away from it. … I embrace it.”
If that weren’t the case, Carter wouldn’t have worn No. 11 at Penn State after greats Parsons and LaVar Arrington. He wouldn’t have checked in with Lawrence Taylor (No. 56) and Phil Simms (No. 11) about potentially unretiring their numbers with the Giants.
“I learned a lot from Micah,” Carter said. “He took me under his wing, just starting at Penn State, that whole ‘Stick City’ (No. 11) tradition. But at the end of the day, I’m my own player. I’m going to be Abdul Carter.”
Who is Carter?
“Very explosive,” defensive tackle Dexter Lawrence said. “That’s what jumps off on film. He is making great strides — leaps and bounds.”
Added Thibodeaux, “He’s twitchy. He can play it all.”
Where’s Carter?
Just look around the ball.
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