Film Study: So… What’s going on with Abdul Carter ? | New York Giants

Film Study: So… What’s going on with Abdul Carter ? | New York Giants

All right, let’s talk Abdul Carter, who was the third overall selection with the New York Giants. And you know, for the Giants, they didn’t really need an edge rusher. They already had Tibido, who they spent a fifth round pick on relatively recently and maybe hasn’t fully lived up to that hype, but has still been an effective player for them. And of course, Brian Burns is Brian Burns. But kind of the logic was for them, hey, Carter is just clearly the third best player, and let’s just draft Carter and we’ll figure it out from there. And so far, depending on what numbers you look at, it maybe hasn’t fully worked out. Now, you look at the box score right here. Um, you know, it’s uh one and a half sacks on the season. That’s not ideal. The tackles and stuff, whatever. That’s very dependent on just, you know, where the run happens to end up, right? That that a lot a lot of times the defender when they make the play don’t actually get the tackle because they just blow things up and let someone else get the tackle. But still, one and a half sacks, not ideal. Now, if you look at like his PFF uh page, you can see that they’re actually much higher on him than maybe the stats will go. Again, sacks can be very fluky game in and game out and season in and season out. You see that Carter is currently sitting at uh you know, 22nd highest graded uh pass rusher, although 101st in run defense, which is kind of the thing coming out of college with him. Great pass rusher, not great run defender. But again, these are all just numbers. Let’s watch the tape. We’ll head over here. I’m going to use the broadcast angle. Some This is always controversial. Some people prefer the all 22. Uh, usually I tend to when it’s like a wide receiver or defensive back do all 22 footage and when it’s a uh, you know, quarterback, use the broadcast. Uh, you know, some people prefer broadcast for this, some people prefer uh all 22. All I I I did watch some 22, but I’m going to just use broadcast footage for this video. Nonetheless, you see Carter uh we’re going to talk about just the uh most recent game we saw uh against the uh Patriots. You see where Carter is on the field right here. Drake May is going to take the snap. You see Carter is trying stuff. You see him working to get his hands free. Ultimately is able to do so with a a bit of a a play fake. It makes it a little bit difficult to know if it’s going to be a handoff or a passing play. It’s third and one so you don’t know for sure and you definitely have to be ready to make a quick tackle if that’s what happens. for Drake May here. Watch Carter. Watch how he keeps fighting and ultimately he gets free enough that when May tries to step up and get out you for a first down, it is not enough. Carter is able to make the tackle. Good job there. I mean, good athlete off the edge, which matters a lot in today’s NFL when you have a lot of quarterbacks try and move. Uh Carter actually got credit for a sack uh on this play. This is his one full sack on the season. Maybe not an ideal one, but hey, it’s still a play and an important play in the game. Now, heading over to run defense. I mean, I just have to say like it’s just it is what it is. It’s the PFF grade is not unfair. Um, you see this play, it’s going to be a first down and 10 run. You see where he is, you know, one-on-one off the edge. And as you see, once you get to this spot, I mean, it’s again, it’s not like the worst thing you’ve ever seen in in the world. But basically, you know, Carter is doing the minimum of what he has to do, which is don’t allow containment to be given up. You know, set that set the edge. Don’t let uh him be able to bounce things to the outside. However, I mean, there’s just there’s a pretty big window here. Back is able to get through and, you know, well blocked by everyone else for New England. They’re able to get some yards right there. It just it is what it is. Again, it’s not like you’re looking at him and saying this guy just doesn’t belong on an NFL football field, but the reality is he just tends to not be able to win in these situations. And you might be thinking, well, hey, wait a second. Doesn’t New England have a uh, you know, a really good left tackle that they drafted fourth overall? They do. He wasn’t playing. That was veteran low who made that block, the backup tackle. So, it just it is what it is. That’s that’s what you were seeing out there. Now, all that being said, I do have to say you do see the flashes with uh Carter again has yet to have just a pure solo sack where he just get gets past a tackle and is able to make a quick play. Doesn’t mean he hasn’t had some some wins that have looked nice. So, like right here, this is a good example going up one-on-one against a tackle. Doesn’t know if it’s going to be a run or a pass. And you know, part of part of why his run uh blocking grade isn’t going to be as good as his pass blocking grade is simply just his play style. He is the type of guy who he wants to get to the quarterback. Watch how he moves so quick off the edge that for Low, the the tackle, I mean, he really doesn’t have a great situation at all. All he can kind of do is just try and push uh Carter behind his quarterback, Drake May. Watch as he does it just enough and really may, I think, kind of save the day by stepping up in the pocket. only so much you can do if there is a pocket to step up in as an edge rusher, but ultimately that’s a good play from Carter. It’s not a superstar highlight reel level play, but it’s a good play. You do that enough times, eventually you’ll get to the quarterback, just hasn’t happened yet. This one, another one where again going up one-on-one against uh Low right here, and he’s going to kind of do something similar to what you would see him do really successfully in college. Watch how when this play begins, it’s a pass rush play. And watch how he it gets what’s called a rip move. You get that left arm under the left arm of the uh tackle and now you’re in a tough spot for low. Uh now he can grab on legally. You’re kind you’re allowed to hold here at this point because essentially your hand got put in a spot where all you can do is hold due to what Carter did. So you can hold on for a bit. You can’t do it forever, but you can for a bit. But for Carter, who cares? Cuz now he just he’s got a full head of steam running straight towards May as well. So May can’t try and get out of this situation. and watch as I mean you know May to his credit gets the ball out. I mean that’s you know again this is why Drake May is an MVP candidate this year is because of his ability to turn bad plays into good ones but these are the plays you look at and say okay this is going to eventually work here. It might not work immediately. It might not have have worked already but like he will get to the quarterback. He will make these plays uh eventually here. I do have to say I do have some critiques in how the Giants just in general have been using Carter. Let’s head over to this play now. And you might be sitting here and wondering, “Well, now wait a second. Why why am I showing an offball linebacker in this situation? Shouldn’t I be showing a uh you know an edge rusher? Carter’s an edge rusher, so why am I showing this?” Well, he is playing off ball. Um again, little bit of critiques here. So, he has played around 33 coverage snaps this year, which isn’t a ton. Um, you know, uh, Brian Burns actually has played 68 coverage snaps on the season, so like it’s not crazy, but they put him out as offball linebacker a bit and they’ve often blitzed him from there. And I just don’t think that’s a great idea. Mostly because like I mean part of the reason why you blitz a linebacker is to hopefully confuse the offensive line and get things, you know, uh, make it tough for them to uh, know who to block. But watch as when Carter steps up. I mean, this is like a wall that he’s running into right here. New England’s all over this. Why is New England all over this? Because they watch film and they see that you like to blitz him from an off ball position and they can just simply just adjust to that. It’s not that difficult. So ultimately, as you see, does not work um kind of as expected there. Uh so you know, I mean, it’s just that’s just the situation right now is again because of the three edge rushers and you know, it’s not just them. They also like to get Chanty Goldson uh in there a decent amount or at least they were against New England. Haven’t haven’t had him play a ton, but they were in that game. Ultimately, like I think Carter’s fine. I do think he has to figure out how to get the run defense working a little better cuz as of right now, like if it’s a first down play, it’s hard to justify putting him out there. You kind of want him out there on obvious passing. However, I do think you see some good uh some good pass rush from him. I would not panic about the low sack totals just yet. Has it been a bit underwhelming? Sure. I think the main thing is you were hoping the run defense would be a little better, even if that was a negative in, you know, coming out of the draft. Um, and maybe you’re just hoping the pass rush to be a bit more dominant. But again, first year player, I think he’s been fine as a rookie, but that’s kind of where I I I see it right now. Got to figure out the run defense a bit more just to get him more snaps so that way he can play more frequently. The reality is for the Giants, and you know, part of it too is sometimes they given up coverage too quickly. I mean, you saw in this video where sometimes he’s getting there quickly, but the ball’s getting out even faster because they’re not covering on the back end. That’s always a part of past rush people don’t tend to talk about. So that’s a factor as well. But yeah, those are my thoughts. What are yours? Let me know in the comments below. Always love hearing from you. And of course, as always, thanks for watching.

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