​There were only a few positives to take from New York Giants edge rusher and former No. 3 overall pick Abdul Carter’s rookie season, and those few seemed vastly outweighed by the negative impression he left on the organization and its fans. On two occasions during his rookie year, Carter was benched for off-field issues. The first came when he slept through a walk-through practice before the Week 11 loss to the Green Bay Packers, resulting in the opening-series removal. The second benching came in Week 13, when he was benched for the entire first quarter of the loss to the New England Patriots after missing a team meeting.
NorthJersey.com Giants reporter Art Stapleton highlighted Carter and his Year 2 expectations as one of the franchise’s major storylines for 2026, noting that the 6-foot-4, 252-pound former Penn State standout might benefit from growing up a bit. Carter entered his rookie season as the odds-on favorite to win NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year but ultimately finished fifth in the voting. “It takes time for the mind and the body to come together at this level, and for Carter, there were well-publicized and highly criticized growing pains that served as warning shots regarding his development last year,” Stapleton wrote. “… Now he enters Year 2 with a first-year resume that remains underappreciated in some circles despite those gifts that scream breakout entering this season.”
In terms of development, Stapleton pointed to what may be the most telling statistic from Carter’s rookie year: he totaled 4.0 sacks in 17 games, but 3.5 of those sacks came over the final five games of the regular season. Carter’s second benching was made significantly worse by his post-bench comments, in which he vehemently denied any wrongdoing and blamed interim head coach Mike Kafka for shifting practice times from what Carter was accustomed to. “My mistake was an honest mistake,” Carter told ESPN’s Adam Schefter after Week 11’s benching. “I own the fact that it was an honest mistake. I was getting treatment and I told Coach Kafka that, too. But to say I was sleeping at that time just wasn’t true. And it also wasn’t a trend. This was the only time it happened. I don’t want anonymous sources to say these types of things about me that are untrue. I did make a mistake, and I own up to what I did.”
Two weeks later, Carter was far more contrite after his benching against the Patriots—a loss that The Athletic’s Dan Duggan called “rock bottom” in a 4-13 season. “(Expletive) happens … I mean, I let my team down today,” Carter said after the loss to the Patriots. “First two drives I was out, they scored 17 points. I take responsibility for that. I gotta be out there. I gotta do better. It’s sickening. I was sick to my stomach. I let (my team) down today.” Even after one season, it’s possible to evaluate the trajectory and the peaks and valleys of a young player’s development, weighing the on-field potential against the leadership and accountability expectations that come with a prominent role in a franchise’s future.