The Giants selected Penn State edge rusher Abdul Carter with Thursday night’s No. 3 overall pick, the closest thing to a consensus elite prospect in this 2025 NFL Draft.
“You can’t have enough pass rushers,” Giants GM Joe Schoen said after picking a pass rusher in the top five for the second time in his four drafts. “We were high-fiving and hugging. The motor he plays with the toughness and violence, that can help [the team] develop an identity.”
Carter, 21, is an explosive converted off-ball linebacker who posted 12 sacks, 24 tackles for loss and 68 tackles in his third and final season for the Nittany Lions and his only season at end. He is confident he will translate that production to the NFL, too.
“I expect to be a dominant player,” Carter said on a conference call from Green Bay. “I just gotta put the work in, trust my coaching, trust my teammates, make sure my teammates trust me. And then I feel like there is no limit to who I can be.”
Carter called being drafted by the Giants “surreal.”
“I’m pretty much at a loss for words,” he added.
He is just the third defensive player in Giants history to be selected with a top three pick. The other two were Lawrence Taylor (No. 2, 1981) and Carl Banks (No. 3, 1984).
“L.T. [is] the G.O.A.T., somebody I look up to, somebody I’ve studied and one of the greatest players of all time,” Carter said. “I just want to follow in his footsteps and bring dominance back to New York.”
He’ll aim to do that as a Day 1 starter teamed with Dexter Lawrence, Brian Burns and Kayvon Thibodeaux to bolster Giants defensive coordinator Shane Bowen’s pass rush. Schoen also announced the Giants have picked up Thibodeaux’s fifth-year option for 2026.
“We’re gonna be dominant,” Carter said. “Once we’re on the field together, [we will] just wreak havoc.”
Carter dealt with two injuries during the pre-draft process, one to his left shoulder from the college season and one to his right foot. But neither ailment deterred the Giants from taking him.
Doctors found the stress reaction in his foot at the NFL Combine in late February and ultimately advised him against having surgery.
Carter did not work out at Penn State’s pro day. The edge rusher assured it won’t hinder him, though, once football begins.
“I’m all good,” he said. “I’m ready to get to work. I’m ready to go.”
Schoen added: “We feel good about the foot, where it is.”
The Giants hope to get even a sliver of the NFL production that Micah Parsons, the last great Penn State edge rusher prospect, has given the Dallas Cowboys since former Giants GM Dave Gettleman passed on him for off-field reasons in 2021.
“He has position flexibility,” head coach Brian Daboll said. “He’s extremely athletic. He’s a tough guy to block.”
Like Parsons, Carter’s scouting report is not squeaky clean. Carter was accused of assaulting a tow truck driver one year ago during an alleged incident in which the driver suffered a fractured rib.
Carter also has been characterized as more individualistic than team-oriented in his on-field football approach by some scouts, needing more discipline to stay in structure rather than always pursuing a big play.
On the other hand, one scout said he believes Carter will be an “elite” starting defensive end in the NFL. And Carter showed impressive toughness by playing through a bad left shoulder during a College Football Playoff Orange Bowl loss to Notre Dame.
Schoen said he attended that game and also watched Carter play in person during a Nov. 2 loss to Ohio State. The Giants’ GM sounded excited even before the draft about chasing the type of defensive line depth that the Philadelphia Eagles showed while winning the Super Bowl.
“Everybody watched the Super Bowl, right? Philly rushed with how many, four the whole game? That’s one way to do it,” Schoen said before the draft.
Carter, interestingly enough, was born in Philadelphia and grew up a huge Eagles fan. He even celebrated their Super Bowl win this past February.
He said on Thursday night, however, that he now bleeds blue.
“I’m all New York now,” he said. “Philly is in the past.”
As excited as Schoen was to land Carter, meanwhile, Carter was only New York’s pick because the Tennessee Titans rebuffed Schoen’s efforts to trade to No. 1 overall for Miami quarterback Cam Ward.
During a spring’s worth of negotiations, Schoen offered the Titans the Giants’ No. 3 overall pick this year, the Giants’ first-round pick next year and more but still couldn’t sway them, ESPN reported Thursday night.
That marks the second straight year Schoen has offered a future first-round pick to try to move up for a quarterback.
Last year, Schoen included picks No. 6 and No. 47 overall and the Giants’ 2025 first rounder in a package to the Patriots for No. 3 to take North Carolina’s Drake Maye. But New England wouldn’t take it.
So when the Jacksonville Jaguars traded over the Giants to No. 2 overall with the Cleveland Browns on Thursday night to select Colorado receiver/corner Travis Hunter, the Giants stuck at No. 3 and took Carter.
And then they focused on chasing Ole Miss’ Jaxson Dart as their quarterback of the future, having passed on Colorado’s Shedeur Sanders despite a ton of work on the lightning rod prospect.
“As long as the process is, this wasn’t an easy decision,” Schoen said of his quarterback interest at No. 3. “But throughout the process it became an easy decision that led us to today.”
Originally Published: April 24, 2025 at 8:37 PM EDT
