Abdul Carter is one of the most exciting and versatile defensive players of the 2025 rookie class. With a rare blend of size, speed, and a high football IQ, he was able to shine as a traditional off-ball inside linebacker at Penn State before moving down to the line of scrimmage and becoming one of the best prospects in the nation. He took home several awards in his only season playing as an edge rusher, and helped bring the Nittany Lions on a deep postseason run in the newly expanded College Football Playoffs. The New York Giants selected him with their first round pick despite having two talented edge rushers on the roster already, leading to some speculation about how exactly they plan to use Carter going forward. This is a player with undeniable physical talent, but questions about his lack of experience at his current position and potential to play other positions make him one of the more intriguing players to watch as we head into the 2025 NFL season. Here is everything you need to know about Abdul Carter:
Full Name: Abdul Jabar Carter
Position: Defensive End / Edge Rusher
Age: 21 (will turn 22 in Week 18)
Height: 6’3”
Weight: 255
Hometown: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Highest Accolades: 2024 Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year
The Background
Abdul Carter was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 2004 to Christopher and Tina Carter. He has four siblings, two sisters named Cheryl and Cianie along with two brothers named Hakim and Isaiah. His father played college football at Bloomsburg University in the 90s, spending 3 years as a defensive end and linebacker for the Bloomsburg Huskies.
The Journey
Abdul Carter got his first taste of success on the football field very early in his life. In 2011, he played in the Pop Warner Super Bowl as a running back for the North Philadelphia Aztecs. He would go on to play his high school football in nearby Wyndmoor, Pennsylvania at La Salle College High School. LSCHS is the Catholic, all-boys preparatory school for Philadelphia’s La Salle University. Playing football and basketball, Carter had a prestigious athletic career for the LSCHS Explorers.
He started out his high school football career by playing in a rotational role as both a defensive end and wide receiver. The team went 5-6 in his freshman year and did not make the playoffs. Heading into his sophomore season in 2019, he started to play less on offense, but became a starter as an off-ball weakside linebacker. In this new position, he recorded 53 tackles, 7 for a loss, and earned all-league honors. The Explorers improved to 8-3 on that season and made the state playoffs but lost to St. Joseph’s Prep, a team that featured future NFL players Kyle McCord and Marvin Harrison Jr. This season landed him on the college recruiting radar, and got him his first scholarship offer from the University of Pittsburgh.
Abdul Carter’s junior year in 2020 would be shortened due to COVID-19, but over the course of that 7 game season he would rack up 34 tackles, 4 sacks, and an interception on the way to earning All-State First-Team honors. By the time his senior year began, Abdul Carter had already received scholarship offers from Kentucky, Michigan, Penn State, Tennessee, USC, Ole Miss, LSU, Maryland and South Carolina in addition to the previous offer from Pittsburgh. In July 2021, he committed to play for Penn State, largely due to the role that head coach James Franklin envisioned for the young linebacker.
Abdul Carter was named team captain as a senior, and led the Explorers to a 9-2 record that was capped off with a conference championship. He tallied 78 total tackles, 53 solo tackles, 2 sacks, 10 tackles for a loss, 1 forced fumble, 1 fumble recovery, and 2 deflected passes on the season. By the end of his high school career he had been named to the All-State team twice, the All-League team three times, got invited to the All-American Bowl, and held four school records in the weight room.
When Abdul Carter arrived at Penn State in June of 2022, his new defensive coordinator Tom Allen approached him about moving from linebacker to an edge rusher. Carter opted to stay at linebacker. He was not an immediate starter for the Nittany Lions, but he still made an impact with situational playing time until he took over a starting role in Week 7. He appeared in all 13 games as a freshman, recording 56 total tackles, 36 solo tackles, 10.5 tackles for a loss, 6.5 sacks, 2 forced fumbles, 4 pass breakups and 5 QB hurries. This performance would earn him All-Big Ten Second Team honors, get him named to the True Freshman All-American team, and make him a finalist for the Shaun Alexander Freshman of the Year Award. Penn State went 11-2 that season, finishing the year with a national ranking of #7 and a victory over Utah in the Rose Bowl.
As a sophomore in 2023, Abdul Carter started all 13 games for Penn State and recorded 48 total tackles, 25 solo tackles, 5.5 tackles for a loss, 4.5 sacks, 1 interception, 1 forced fumble, 5 pass breakups, and 5 QB hurries. The team went 10-3, finishing with a national ranking of #13 and a loss to Ole Miss in the Peach Bowl. Carter took home First-Team All-Big Ten honors, Second Team All-American honors, and ended the year on the watch list for several major defensive awards.
In the spring of Abdul Carter’s sophomore year at Penn State, he was charged with misdemeanor assault following an incident with a tow truck driver. This incident occurred in April of 2024, when the tow truck driver attempted to tow a car that had been parked by Carter in a location for which it did not have a parking permit. Carter pulled the driver out of the tow truck and got into a physical altercation on the ground, during which the driver sustained a fractured rib. That summer, Carter was placed on a one-year pre-trial intervention program. The full details of this program are not publicly available at this time, but people that participate in these types of programs in connection to misdemeanor charges are typically able to avoid going to trial and having their charges dismissed if they stay out of further legal trouble for the full duration of the program.
Before the start of his junior season in 2024, Abdul Carter approached the Penn State coaching staff again about moving from linebacker to edge rusher. This time, everyone agreed that it would be the best fit for him. His coaches were fully supportive of the move. He trained with former Penn State Nittany Lion and current Dallas Cowboy Micah Parsons to prepare for this season, and started all 16 games from his new position. That year he recorded 68 total tackles, 43 solo tackles, 23.5 tackles for a loss, 12 sacks, 2 forced fumbles, and 4 pass breakups. The Nittany Lions would go 13-3, finish with a #5 ranking and make it to the semifinals of the newly expanded College Football Playoffs. They beat SMU in the first round and advanced to the Fiesta Bowl where they beat Ashton Jeanty’s Boise State Broncos. Sometime during that Boise State game, Carter sustained an unspecified injury to his left shoulder that limited him for the following game. It is unclear if he was physically unable to play in the full game due to this injury, or if the decision was made to reduce his playing timeto protect his availability for the NFL Draft. With Carter playing a limited number of snaps, Penn State lost the Orange Bowl to Notre Dame. In what would be his final season of college football, Abdul Carter was named a Unanimous All-American, Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year, and Big Ten Defensive Lineman of the Year. He was also among the finalists for several major defensive awards, including the Chuck Bednarik Award, the Bronko Nagurski Trophy, and the Walter Camp Player of the Year Award.
Just before the 2025 NFL Combine, Abdul Carter’s agent Drew Rosenhaus issued a statement saying that Carter would not be participating in the Combine drills or Penn State’s Pro Day because he was recovering from a stress fracture in his right foot. This injury was previously unreported, but according to Rosenhaus there was a medical recheck done sometime in April and it showed that the fracture was healing appropriately and would not require surgery. Carter is expected to be fully recovered for the start of his rookie season.
The Future
The New York Giants selected Abdul Carter with the third overall pick of the NFL draft, showing that they were not concerned with the two late-season injuries. While he has only played one season at the position he was drafted to play, his background as a former linebacker gives the Giants a lot of flexibility in how they use him. Carter can line up on the line as a true edge rusher, he can drop back into pass coverage, or he can play the role of a QB Spy against mobile quarterbacks. He has the speed to get through to the backfield and be a constant disruption to the offense, and if the play is going away from him he can still chase down ball carriers from behind with his combination of speed, high motor, and terrific pursuit angles.
There are some questions as to how Carter can fit into the Giants’ existing defensive line, considering that they are still carrying their 2022 first round pick Kayvon Thibodeaux and last offseason’s big trade piece in Brian Burns on the roster. Both players have been effective on the edge and have multiple years or options left on their current contracts. While most teams would struggle to find playing time for three high-profile edge rushers, Carter is a very unique type of player that might force the Giants to get creative with their defensive rotations. Both head coach Brian Daboll and general manager Joe Schoen are on some of the hottest seats in the league, with immense pressure to turn the team around this season or risk losing their jobs. They will want to justify their use of the third overall pick on Carter, and that could lead to some very entertaining football. Regardless of how all of that plays out, we believe that Abdul Carter has every tool you want in a top defensive prospect and more than enough upside to one day prove he deserved to be drafted as high as he was. We expect him to develop into one of the better defensive ends in recent memory.
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