Abdul Carter Has One Preseason Tackle. Harbaugh Keeps Praising Him Anyway.

Abdul Carter has one tackle, no sack and no quarterback hit in his only preseason game snap this year. Giants coach John Harbaugh has praised him repeatedly anyway.

The praise traces to practice, not to the two preseason games the Giants have played so far. Carter's preseason box score, so far, shows almost nothing.

What Harbaugh has actually said

Harbaugh answered a question about Carter's football IQ on Aug. 18, in a media session transcribed by Giants.com. "I think it's really high," Harbaugh said. "I mean, if you watch the plays, you have to say so because the results are really good right now. He's studying the game. I don't know that he's made a mistake on a run read yet."

Ten days earlier, on Aug. 8, a reporter asked Harbaugh directly about Carter's camp. Harbaugh's answer, also from the official Giants.com transcript: "I'd say everything he's spoken of in terms of what he wants to accomplish and his plans to do so, he's following through on. I think he's been a real leader and mostly by example, by the way he's playing and the energy he's giving. So, it looks good, you're right. I mean, he's had a really, really great camp so far." NFL.com's Grant Gordon reported the same exchange the next day.

A separate clip has circulated under the headline "Harbaugh Gives Abdul Carter A Resounding A+ So Far," from an Aug. 14 phone interview on WFAN's "Boomer & Gio" show. That characterization is the radio show's own framing of the interview, not a quote GiantsGator obtained or verified word for word.

What Carter has actually done

The praise traces to camp practice, specifically Carter's reps against left tackle Andrew Thomas. Big Blue View's Ed Valentine reported that Carter had "at least two would-be sacks" of Jaxson Dart in one-on-one pass-rush work against Thomas during a July 30 practice at the Giants' camp in White Sulphur Springs, W.Va. Thomas, an All-Pro, credited Carter afterward: "He's stringing his moves together better. He's using his power more." Those are practice observations, not official statistics.

The Giants' first preseason game tells a different story. Carter started at outside linebacker in the Aug. 15 preseason opener, a 13-10 loss to the Minnesota Vikings. Per ESPN's official box score of that game, Carter finished with one assisted tackle and no sack, no tackle for loss and no quarterback hit. Darius Alexander had the Giants' only sack of the game. Carter then sat out the second preseason game, a 26-3 win over Miami on Aug. 22, resting alongside Brian Burns and Kayvon Thibodeaux, per the box score from that game.

Carter's own comments about the Thomas matchups, from the same Aug. 18 session: "Yeah, we've made each other better all throughout camp. Every rep we get is just best on best. We learn a lot from going against each other, and it's going to prepare us throughout the season."

Carter is entering his second NFL season. As a rookie in 2025, he started 6 of 17 games and recorded 4.0 sacks and 43 combined tackles (25 solo), according to Pro Football Reference. He was also benched twice that season for tardiness and missed sessions.

The Dart 'brother' quote, explained

Giants quarterback Jaxson Dart called Carter "my brother" in comments to reporters on May 29. That quote is not from training camp. It came after Dart introduced President Donald Trump at a May 22 rally for Rep. Mike Lawler, which Carter criticized publicly on social media the next day. The two spoke privately and the team held a players-led meeting to address it. "Me and him are one of the closer guys on the team with each other, so we've had a lot of conversation and he's my brother," Dart said then, according to ESPN's Jordan Raanan, who reported the story. Carter, at the same time, said of Dart: "I know Jaxson is a good dude... Just because we have a disagreement on something doesn't mean that there is something more than that."

What's next

The Giants close out the preseason Friday, Aug. 28, against the Jets. The team's initial 53-man roster is due by 6 p.m. that Sunday.