Abdul Carter unquestionably is the most obvious upgrade already on this year’s Giants roster.
The NFL Draft’s No. 3 overall pick has shown enough explosiveness and playmaking in just four practices to make that abundantly clear.
Carter’s workload increased Sunday with veteran Brian Burns taking a day off due to a Friday collision with wide receiver Wan’Dale Robinson.
The rookie saw extensive snaps with the starters for the first time, lined up mostly on the left edge opposite right tackle Jermaine Eluemunor.
And although Eluemunor controlled Carter’s moves early, the Penn State product broke through for a mid-field sack of Wilson around the edge and an impressive red zone pressure on a spin move inside.
“I perform best under pressure,” Carter said at the podium after practice.
A lot is expected of top five picks, especially a player like Carter, who was viewed by a majority of teams as the best non-quarterback in this year’s NFL Draft.
Still, it’s uncommon for players to stand out immediately on an NFL training camp field when they arrive from college, regardless of their pedigree.
“I felt good,” Carter said of the first-team reps. “I feel like that was a real football drive going down the field, play after play after play. I feel like it really felt good.”
Carter’s play hasn’t been perfect. He has overrun some running plays, leaving room for a gaping hole on the inside of the offensive line. And Eluemunor caught the rookie’s first spin move and stopped him in his tracks.
It wasn’t the same as facing fellow rookie Marcus Mbow, whom Carter had overwhelmed the first few days while working more with the second-stringers.
Still, Carter adjusted during the drive and produced. He bent low to get around Eluemunor for his sack of Wilson and then returned to the spin move to flush Wilson out of the pocket to the left side later in the drive.
“It’s also setting up moves later down in the drive,” Carter said. “I feel like pass rush is a science. It’s like you’re playing basketball, dribbling the ball, just setting your moves up, setting up your counter. I just try to think about it like that. It’s really just a science for me.”
The most exciting part of Carter’s game is that he appears to be playing at a consistently higher level of violence, power and aggressiveness than most players are able to generate.
He lifted starting center John Michael Schmitz off of his feet and tossed him to the ground with one interior pass rush during the first few days of camp.
The rookie looks like a potential game-wrecker. And he has versatility to play off-ball linebacker, edge and interior defensive line. So defensive coordinator Shane Bowen can move him around and hunt favorable matchups.
And Bowen already has. Now comes Monday’s first day in pads, when Carter will get to take his battle with the offensive line to the next level.
If he keeps playing the way he has, he’ll present the Giants with a good problem: whom to take off the field from the projected starting 11 down to down. Because it is going to be challenging to take him off of it.
“He certainly has very good instincts as a football player,” head coach Brian Daboll said. “Some players do exactly what’s on the paper… He’s a little bit of a ‘see ball, get ball’ kind of guy. And he’s done a nice job with what we’ve asked him to do. We’ll see how it grows.”
FORD-WHEATON GOES DOWN
Wide receiver Bryce Ford-Wheaton, one of the Giants’ most important special teams players, had to be carted off the field Sunday with what looked like a serious, non-contact injury to his left foot or Achilles area that could sideline him long-term. Ford-Wheaton crumpled to the ground while trying to break his route to the right sideline and taking some contact from a defender. He stood up initially and tried to walk off the injury but quickly collapsed to the ground again with his head in his hands. Losing Ford-Wheaton for the season would be a significant loss. He played almost 80% of the Giants’ special teams snaps last season.
ROBINSON ROCKED AGAIN
Robinson, the Giants’ undersized starting slot receiver, collided with a teammate for a second straight practice. He and safety Dane Belton appeared to bang knees on the back side of a play, and Robinson hobbled off to the sideline after lying on the grass in pain. That play ended Robinson’s practice, although he did not require immediate treatment. He just observed from the sideline… Robinson is the second prominent Giants receiver to get hurt early in camp. Jalin Hyatt has sat out the last two practices with an apparent lower-body injury after going down on day two. Hyatt has been out on the field observing but hasn’t participated.
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