Abdul Carter only has half a sack through his first three NFL games, but Carter’s confidence and statistics both support that he’s due to finish at the quarterback more often.
“For sure,” Carter, the No. 3 overall pick in April’s NFL Draft, told the Daily News Thursday. “That’s one thing I know: my best ability is my pass rush ability. So I know the sacks are gonna come. There’s no pressure. This is what I do best. This is what I’ve been doing since forever. So I know that’s all gonna come.”
Carter leads the Giants with an 11.8% pressure percentage on his pass rushes, according to NFL NextGen Stats, but what’s more encouraging is how quickly he gets to the QB when he wins.
Through the season’s first two weeks, Carter’s average time to pressure of approximately 2.3 seconds ranked in the top 10 of all NFL defensive ends and outside linebackers with a minimum 50 snaps, according to Patton Analytics.
“He’s so quick twitch that when he wins, he wins immediately, and he’s on a guy’s back side in a hurry, so he’s through the line or around the blocker quickly,” outside linebackers coach Charlie Bullen said Friday.
It also might help Carter’s time to the quarterback, Bullen said, that the dynamic pass rusher sometimes is rushing on the inside against centers and guards, which cuts down his distance to the passer.
“Some of those also were up the middle pressures where he’s rushing a center or a guard and they’re closer to the quarterback,” he said. “So I think some of that’s been involved. He’s got a little bit more of those opportunities inside. But he’s gifted. So when he wins, they’re quick wins wherever he’s at.”
Carter said however he gets there, if he’s disrupting the quarterback, he’s doing his job.
“I don’t really pay attention to the statistics that much,” he said. “But my whole thing is as long as I’m out there and I’m affecting the quarterback, it don’t really matter how I do it. So I don’t really pay attention to the statistics that much.
“I know how to win fast, and I know how to read offensive linemen well where I can get quick wins,” he explained. “So it’s probably just knowing that, knowing what I’m doing and just all the work that I put in.”
The Giants’ rookie with so much raw talent said it’s not even as complicated as trying to set up an offensive lineman for a move later in a drive.
“On your rushes when you get off the ball, it’s just letting your instincts take over,” Carter said. “Most of the times you don’t even want to think. You just want to go out there and play and react. That’s probably the best way to do it.”
The job of defensive coordinator Shane Bowen and Bullen now is to maximize Carter’s usage and pass rush impact for Sunday’s game against the undefeated Los Angeles Chargers (3-0).
That likely will mean putting Carter back on the edge close to full time, rather than using him at off-ball linebacker like they did against the Kansas City Chiefs in last Sunday’s 22-9 loss.
Carter played 75% his defensive snaps (43 of 57) as an off-ball linebacker against the Chiefs to help an injury-depleted linebacker group and spy Patrick Mahomes, according to Pro Football Focus. That was basically a complete position change after he had logged only 12.3% of his 105 defensive snaps off the ball in the Giants’ first two games.
He still rushed the passer from that position at times as blitzer. But given that his usage against the Chiefs seemed gameplan specific and that Darius Muasau is returning to the lineup from a concussion, it seems like Carter will be back to rushing off the edge frequently against the Chargers.
“There is a balance,” Bullen said. “If his fastball is rushing on the edge, which he’s really good at, we’ve got to give him some pitches out there. We’re aware of that. But he’s also gifted at rushing inside.
“So I think it’s just being mindful of is he getting enough reps on the edge,” he added. “Last week was a very unique deal playing off the ball, but I think moving forward we’ll try to give him more rushes on the edge.”
Carter said he was able to switch positions easily because linebacker “was my natural position” that “I’ve played since high school,” until he converted to an edge rusher during his final season at Penn State. Bullen still marveled at Carter’s ability to make the change after only three practices at the position and play as well as he did.
The next step for Carter is finishing at the quarterback when he gets there.
He chased Mahomes twice out of the pocket in the final minute of Sunday’s second quarter from a pre-snap standing position as an interior rusher.
The first time he put a hit on Mahomes for an incompletion. The second time, Mahomes stiff-armed Carter down, eluded the sack along the sideline and launched a bomb for a 51-yard pass interference penalty on the Giants.
Carter raised his left hand as he approached Mahomes and hesitated, rather than attacking him full tilt. And Mahomes finessed his way out of it to make a huge play.
“I should have just ran through him,” Carter said. “Just can’t miss those, you know? That’s the ones that eat at you. But I’ll learn from it. It won’t happen again.”
Bullen said Mahomes has so many tools, it’s difficult to know if he’s going to stiff arm, pump fake or take off. So those are “tough” plays.
But Carter will learn. He’s getting to the quarterback quickly when he does get there. And sooner or later, hopefully Sunday against Justin Herbert, the sacks will come.
