Abdul Carter is a New York Giant. The wait is over—finally. All that talk about what the Giants will and won’t do with the third pick is done.
After Cam Ward went to Tennessee and Travis Hunter headed to Cleveland, Carter was the best player available—and quite possibly the best player in the entire class. He has future superstar written all over him. An explosive pass-rusher with Micah Parsons-like twitch and Lawrence Taylor-level aspirations? Yeah, the Giants are cooking with gas.
For a long time—practically the entirety of this past season—the talk of the town was all about taking a quarterback with their first pick. Back then, Georgia’s Carson Beck was the hot name. Then the tide turned to Cam Ward, then Shedeur Sanders, and finally, Jaxson Dart had his 48-hour moment in the sun.
But through all of that noise, Carter just kept wrecking offenses. And instead of folding to media pressure or reaching for a QB out of fear, Joe Schoen made the kind of decision this franchise hasn’t made in a long time: the smart one.
Giants avoid QB reach, land a true blue-chip defender
No one would’ve blamed Schoen for drafting with conviction and taking Sanders. If he believed in him, that’s how you build. But what the Giants just did was send a clear message—they won’t let another Daniel Jones situation happen. They’re not reaching on a quarterback for the sake of it or to please anyone.
Yes, they already have Brian Burns and Kayvon Thibodeaux. And no, that doesn’t matter. Carter is the kind of player you make room for. Teams like the Eagles, Ravens, and 49ers have shown there’s no such thing as too much pass rush in today’s NFL.
The last time the G-Men reached on a quarterback, it set them back years. This time, they took a potential All-Pro at a premium position and didn’t overthink it. This wasn’t just a great pick—it might’ve flipped the future of the franchise.
Now the only question is what number Carter will wear. Nos. 11 and 56 are off-limits—Phil Simms and Lawrence Taylor made sure of that. But hey, Malik Nabers got No. 1 unretired last year from Ray Flaherty’s archives... so who knows? Still, something tells us No. 56 should probably stay under lock and key.