The absence of Abdul Carter for the New York Giants’ opening drive on defense against the Green Bay Packers in Week 11 was noticeable, and interim head coach Mike Kafka has given a less than emphatic answer about the 2025 NFL draft third-overall pick’s playing time during the 27-20 defeat at MetLife Stadium on Sunday, November 16.
Speaking after the game, Kafka told reporters, including NorthJersey.com’s Art Stapleton, “it was a coach’s decision” to keep Carter on the sideline for the opening series. While that hardly cleared up whether Carter was held out for disciplinary reasons, Kafka did state “I love Abdul,” who played every defensive snap after that, according to Stapleton.
Although he got back onto the field in a hurry, there’s still some mystery about why Carter wasn’t involved in the first six snaps played by Big Blue’s defense. Kafka doesn’t want to make a bigger story out of the issue, doubling down on the answer, “we’ll keep the rest of that in house,” per SNY.tv’s Giants Videos, but why not provide specifics?
A measure of clarity from Carter, who told reporters “he made a mistake during the week, and that’s why he was not on the field for the first drive. Wouldn’t specify what but said he knows his actions have consequences,” according to Pat Leonard of the New York Daily News.
Such vague answers mean speculation will remain about Carter’s playing time. It only adds to the scrutiny on a highly-touted rookie edge-rusher who is struggling to produce the numbers to justify his draft status.
Abdul Carter Struggled to Make an Impact
Whether or not his initial benching unsettled Carter, his final numbers were well short of what the Giants expect from a supposed playmaker up front. As ESPN’s Jordan Raanan noted, Carter finished with “1 QB hit, 1 tackle. NextGen credited him with two pressures.”
The Giants are still waiting on Carter to put everything together and take over a game at the pro level. He’s flashed the potential to dominate, but so far potential isn’t being translated into production.
Giants coaches have struggled to find the best usage plan for Carter’s explosiveness and versatility, and the former Penn State standout hasn’t always been fully healthy.
The Giants are stacked on the edges thanks to Brian Burns and Kayvon Thibodeaux, but Carter was drafted to be a difference-maker. He’s supposed to be the player offenses fear and need special game-plans to stop, but Carter’s generated a mere 11 solo tackles and half a sack.
Big-name players not living up to their billing has been a problem for the Giants all season, with All-Pro nose tackle Dexter Lawrence II also a target for criticism. It’s one reason the team is 2-9, and Kafka is having to try and raise standards.
Mike Kafka Must Improve Giants Accountability
Kafka has to make star names more accountable for their performances on and off the field. That might explain what happened with Carter early on against the Packers, as well as make sense of Kafka’s daring approach later in the game.
The stand-in sideline general repeatedly had his offense go for it on fourth downs, albeit without the results. Kafka had the offense run a play on fourth down three times on one drive, only for the Packers to hold firm.
He’s not deterred by the failures, and Kafka admitted, “Regardless, we want to be aggressive,” per Raanan, who also revealed “Kafka planned to go for 2-point conversion and win if Giants got in end zone at end.”
The merits of throwing caution to the wind are debatable, even though the Giants have little left to play for this season. Smart, situational football can become a habit over the final seven games.
Kafka’s bold strategy still puts the responsibility on players to show some pride and execute when it matters. Unfortunately, Carter and Co. didn’t do enough of that in the first game since Brian Daboll was fired.
Kafka at least established he’s going to be tougher on those who are accountable.
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