Abdul Carters Giants job is only getting harder and he aced his first test

The highest-graded pass rusher in the NFL last week didn’t have a sack.In keeping with the Giants’ early-season messaging that sacks don’t tell the full story of a pass rush, Abdul Carter made his impact felt during a win against the Cardinals with three quarterback hits, earning a league-best 90.1 grade from Pro Football Focus.Get texts from Paul Schwartz with all the latest Giants news and insights, exclusive to Sports+ subscribers.

The most encouraging part of the Carter-created disruption was that it came against a significant uptick in double teams because the extra attention usually sent toward Brian Burns was redirected his way with Burns (torn ACL) out for the season.“He’s been disruptive every game — run and pass,” head coach John Harbaugh said.“He probably had his best game this last game, no question about it.“If they do that [more double teams], to whom much was given much is required, right? So, he’ll have to take on the responsibility of more attention.

But I would guess that Abdul relishes that.That’s what he wants.

I’d be willing to bet that he’ll rise to the occasion.”Freed from the admitted pressure of a 12-game sack drought like he had to begin his rookie season, Carter is playing up to his potential as the former No.3 pick, even though he only has one sack and the Giants only have three.Since entering the league, Carter leads all NFL players with 57 quick quarterback pressures (under 2.5 seconds).

The eight that he tallied against the Cardinals were tied for the fifth most by any player in a game since 2019, per NextGenStats.“Before the game, I had seen that when Jacoby [Brissett] is not being pressured and everything is clean he is very accurate, high passer rating, high completion percentage,” Carter said.“When you hit those guys, all that stuff goes down.

You want to pressure them and hit them as much as possible.”On the Green Light podcast, retired NFL brothers Chris and Kyle Long referred to Carter...