Holy moly, does New York Giants rookie linebacker Abdul Carter have a problem. After publicly fighting off allegations that he’s lazy and selfish, one subtle moment caught on camera might just be impossible to defend.
Carter was benched on the opening drive of the Giants’ Week 11 matchup against the Green Bay Packers after being late to a walkthrough. It’s not like he did something horrific -- he was getting red-light therapy in the players’ lounge. Interim head coach Mike Kafka benched him again for the first quarter in Big Blue’s Monday night contest against the New England Patriots. He was presumably late to another meeting.
The 21-year-old hasn’t exactly handled the pushback well. After slightly owning up to his mistake against the Packers, his “Sh*t happens” response to the Pats’ benching was... a choice.
Shrug it off all you want, but somewhere, somehow, there are receipts—and HBO’s Hard Knocks: In Season with the NFC East captured the 2025 third-overall pick passed out in a team meeting with no notebook or anything to indicate he was preparing for his first primetime matchup since Week 6.
Yikes.
Abdul Carter's rocky rookie season hits new low on Hard Knocks
The picture captured on television is a terrible look. There’s no way around it. And for the past couple of weeks, there hasn’t been a clear picture, but Sports Illustrated’s Albert Breer peeled back the curtain on just how bad things have been between the former Penn State standout and his rookie efforts:
"The rookie pass rusher has had issues all year with being late and/or missing team obligations. Now fired coach Brian Daboll fined Carter for it on multiple occasions."
Daboll couldn’t get through to him. Kafka hasn’t been able to either. If neither money nor playing time will get through to him, Big Blue has a much bigger problem than a player who was late to a meeting or two. This is systemic. It’s who he is.
And unfortunately, it might be. According to multiple draft analysts, the rookie pass-rusher had a reputation for being self-centered in college, and several NFL teams knew about it.
Maybe if he were lighting up the league, fans could overlook some of this -- not all of it, but some. However, for him to act this entitled and not be producing anywhere close to his draft pedigree? That’s just a non-starter.
It's no wonder he hasn't been putting up the sack totals we thought he would -- he's been too busy catching Zs. Remember, this is the same guy who asked Lawrence Taylor to un-retire his number so he could wear it.
The fact the G-Men are headed into their Week 14 bye and not one person has been able to reel Carter in so far says a lot about the people in the building. The team is 2-11. It’s lost seven straight games, hasn’t won a road game since Week 5 of last season, and looks as downtrodden as ever.
These are dark times in East Rutherford. Whoever the next head coach is, they’re walking into a situation much harder than anyone could have anticipated.