The New York Giants might have an Abdul Carter problem — or several. It's tough to gauge at this point. The third-overall pick has yet to play like a top-three pick so far in his rookie season, and now, fans might have a bit more insight into the reasons why.
Related: Mike Kafka’s Abdul Carter wake-up call proved Giants are finally changing course
According to The Athletic's Dan Duggan, Carter hasn't exactly been taking his job seriously. Look no further than his first-drive benching against the Green Bay Packers in Week 11. According to team sources, the 21-year-old was caught sleeping through team walk-throughs, which resulted in interim head coach Mike Kafka benching the rookie for the first six plays of the game.
It took Kafka one week to do something former head coach Brian Daboll couldn't: Hold his players accountable in a reasonable manner. And as Duggan later revealed in his report, this is not the first time Carter has pushed his luck when it comes to being present:
"Being late to meetings has been a trend during Carter’s rookie season that former coach Brian Daboll let slide, a source said."
Abdul Carter’s rookie slip-ups expose the cracks Brian Daboll refused to fix
Fans can feel however they want about their 21-year-old pass-rusher falling asleep — or recovering, as Carter suggested in a response to Duggan — during a team walk-through. At the end of the day, he is a professional and should know better. However, if Daboll is going to be an enabler and let that kind of behavior slide without consequence, then the standard was never real in the first place.
The report isn't all that surprising, honestly. Just look at Daboll's empty postgame comments — every week it was the same spiel, with no changes. It was all word vomit with no action plan. So, is it all that surprising to hear he let his star pass-rusher bend the rules a bit and do absolutely nothing about it? Not at all.
If Duggan's report is true, this might just be the biggest indictment of the former head coach yet. And that includes the supposed lashing out and berating of assistants.
This is just another prime example of what a lack of accountability can lead to. For the Giants, it's a struggling top-tier pick, a 2-9 record, and an interim head coach left to clean it all up. Fortunately for the fans, it already feels like Kafka is at least trying to do something about it by holding the players to higher standards than Daboll did.
As for Carter, it's been a frustrating rookie season. He has half a sack through 11 games, having 2.5 more taken away from penalties. He does have 35 quarterback pressures, tying him for 26th in the league. Let's see if his discipline — and subsequent public humiliation — will change his attitude.