Giants' Abdul Carter May Be the Most Deceptive Defender Ever

You would be hard-pressed to find a more unique player than New York Giants edge rusher Abdul Carter, who has established himself as a lynchpin in the Giants' defense in the second year of his NFL career.

Carter's box score numbers do not do him justice. They're actually deceptive.

He has logged 19 tackles, a couple of sacks and seven quarterback hits through eight games. Those are not the stats you would expect from a former No. 3 overall pick.

But the tape on Carter speaks very differently.

It's blatantly obvious that the 23-year-old has a profound impact on the game, and we saw that on Sunday against the Philadelphia Eagles when Carter was regularly double-teamed — and sometimes even triple-teamed — throughout the affair.

The Giants racked up seven sacks in their win over the Eagles, marking their first victory in Philadelphia since 2013. Carter was not responsible for any of them, but his presence and gravity unquestionably caused some of them.

Carter owns an 88.1 overall grade at Pro Football Focus, which ranks fourth among edge rushers. He also boasts a pass-rushing grade of 82.5, which ranks sixth.

Could the Penn State product stand to be better against the run? Sure, but that's not his primary area of expertise. He was a pass rusher in college, and he is a pass rusher now.

Have the sacks come yet? No. Carter has accumulated just 6.5 sacks over 25 games, which is not what anyone expected from him.

After all, Carter rattled off 12 sacks during his final season at Penn State and was drawing comparisons to Micah Parsons.

Don't get me wrong: the sacks do need to stack up for Carter to reach his full potential. The best pass rushers get sacks. Lots of them.

But the fact that Carter can impact the game so heavily without actually getting to opposing quarterbacks is what makes him so incredibly different.

Generally, edge rushers are measured by the plays they finish; not the plays in which they contribute. You hardly ever see an edge defender with two sacks in eight games having a tremendous effect. But then came Carter.

It's also important to keep in mind that Carter is achieving this without Brian Burns, who went down for the season in Week 3 with a torn ACL. If Burns were present, you can bet Carter would probably have better numbers, because offenses couldn't key on him nearly as much.

Nevertheless, Carter still has his fingerprints all over the Giants' defense, which is now a top-five unit in all of football.