Giants’ Abdul Carter, Packers’ Micah Parsons to reunite on Sunday when teams square off at MetLife Stadium
Abdul Carter will see a familiar face on Sunday at MetLife Stadium. The Giants rookie linebacker will share the field with Packers linebacker and fellow Penn State alum Micah Parsons.
The comparisons between the two took off during the pre-draft process. It helps that Carter wore No. 11 just like Parsons and that the two became close after Carter arrived at Penn State.
“He took me under his wing,” Carter said of Parsons, who was drafted a year before Carter’s freshman year at Penn State. “Obviously the No. 11 tradition. Just being with him, learning from him. That’s my brother.”
The reunion with Parsons might take a back seat to bigger things for Carter. With Kayvon Thibodeaux out this week, Carter is in line to make his second start of the season.
It’s a reminder that, at times, he’s been overlooked in his rookie campaign because of Jaxson Dart’s strong play. Rare is it for a top-five pick to not be talked about as much as another rookie, but Carter has been a subplot to the Giants’ bigger issues with Dart’s emergence, the team’s late-game collapses and collective issues with the defense.
Part of that is that Carter is still waiting for his first full sack. He has only a half-sack that he split with Thibodeaux in the season opener. But he still has been disruptive, as evidenced by his rookie-leading 35 pressures. Next is Cowboys defensive end Donovan Ezeiruaku with 20.
Carter, however, was critical of how his first NFL season is going. “Cup half full. I feel like a lot more out there I can do,” he said. “I can be a lot more ferocious just in everything that I do. Just gotta keep getting better week in, week out.”
He’s been getting closer each week to that full sack. He would’ve had 1 1⁄2 sacks last Sunday against the Bears if not for both plays being wiped away by penalties. He lost a sack against the Broncos because of an offensive holding penalty.
But Carter is making plays. He had his first fumble recovery against the Eagles. According to ESPN, Carter’s 17% pass-rush win rate — a metric used to determine how often a pass rusher beats his block within 2.5 seconds — is 16th among edge rushers and tied with teammate Brian Burns and the Raiders’ Maxx Crosby.
Burns, the NFL’s co-sacks leader with 11, noted that there’s more ways to impact quarterbacks than sacks, and Carter has been doing that.
“You’re getting pressure, you’re winning. It’s not like you’re losing,” Burns said last month of his message to Carter. “The sacks will come. They come in bunches. I’ve just been trying to keep his head straight on that and keep his head clear of everything else.”
Outside linebackers coach Charlie Bullen echoed that sentiment. People might expect more production from Carter, the No. 3 overall pick, but Bullen has been more pleased with his energy, effort and physicality.
“The message is always, just keep playing good football and doing what you can to produce, and the production will come,” Bullen said. “You can’t chase numbers. You just got to do your job at a high level and live with what comes from that.”
Before the season, it was easy to hope Carter would have a Parsons-like impact, given his reputation. But that glossed over Parsons’ historic numbers. Since sacks became an official stat in 1982, he and Reggie White are the only two players to have 12 sacks in each of their first four seasons.
Like Carter, Parsons is dealing with the burden of high expectations in his first season with Green Bay after being traded from the Cowboys. This week, Fox Sports personality Colin Cowherd called him “a remarkable, athletic splash player” who is not good against the run.
That prompted Parsons, who has 6 1⁄2 sacks this season, to snap back on X. He cited the Packers holding Saquon Barkley to 60 rushing yards on Monday night and being one of the league’s top run defenses, allowing an average of 91.8 yards rushing per game.
The Giants, of course, are giving Parsons his due, having watched him get 4 1⁄2 sacks in eight career games against them.
“He’s as disruptive a pass rusher and defensive player as we’ve seen,” offensive coordinator Tim Kelly said.
The Giants hope similar praise eventually comes to Carter. But he has made it clear since his first news conference that he will be his own man, not a Parsons clone.
Parsons remains a close friend whom Carter looks forward to seeing Sunday. Yet Carter has his own business to handle against the Packers, including that long-desired first sack.
If it comes Sunday, he hopes it doesn’t come with a flag to erase it.
“That hurt a little bit,” Carter said about his negated sacks. “At the same time, I can’t make excuses for myself. I just got to keep working.”
Evan Barnes covers the Giants for Newsday. He previously covered the Brooklyn Nets, Memphis football and the Memphis Grizzlies and also covered prep sports in Los Angeles.
