Abdul Carter says he has done nothing yet, even after a summer that made him look like one of the New York Giants’ fastest-rising players. The No. 3 overall pick in the 2025 NFL Draft said Friday that camp praise is one thing, but the real measure starts when the games count, and that begins Sunday night against the Dallas Cowboys.
That is why Carter’s comments landed now. He had dominated his reps in training camp, stood out in the joint practice with the Miami Dolphins and drew notice even in limited preseason appearances, yet he still framed all of it as unfinished business. “You can dominate camp, but our camp is not really recorded for everybody to see, so our clips aren't out there as much, which is fine, because it's not about that, it's not what camp is for,” he said after practice Friday.
The point is not hard to see. Carter’s work has been enough to build real buzz inside the Giants, but it has not been put on display for the wider football audience in the way regular-season games are. That is part of why he said the hype around him only really grows once he starts playing big-time football, first in college and now in the NFL. For a player who came into the league with a large spotlight and then spent the summer making the most of every rep, Sunday night is the first chance to turn private dominance into public evidence.
There is also a sharper edge to that message. Carter has already lived through well publicized and highly criticized growing pains last year, and he knows that a strong camp does not erase that history. Even so, the picture around him seemed to shift over the final five games, and that is part of what makes the opener matter. He did not promise a breakout; he insisted on restraint. “You can't really buy into it, though. You just got to keep it level and keep playing, the rest will come,” he said.
Carter’s path to this moment has been a strange one. At The Greenbrier Resort during training camp, he once ducked inside on a play and blew past the pocket to avoid Jaxson Dart, and on another snap he accidentally sent T.J. Weist tumbling to the ground while Weist stood about 10 yards off the line of scrimmage with a whistle in hand. Those flashes helped fuel the idea that Carter could be a force. Sunday night at MetLife Stadium is where that idea has to become something more concrete. Until then, he is treating the summer as a beginning, not a conclusion.
