Report: Abdul Carter benched for sleeping through New York Giants team walk-through

The New York Giants had a notable absence from their opening series of Sunday’s loss to the Green Bay Packers. Rookie edge rusher Abdul Carter was reportedly benched for missing the team’s walk-through.

The report indicated that Carter was at the team facility during the walk-through. However, he was asleep while it was going on, missing it.

Abdul Carter himself would take to social media. There, he acknowledged that he missed the walk-through. However, he refuted the idea that it was because he had been asleep. Instead, he attributed it to recovery.

“Was not sleep, actually doing recovery,” Carter posted. “Nonetheless that’s on ME!”

The initial refute of him sleeping was a direct reply to Dan Duggan, the reporter for The Athletic, who posted the story online. However, he would share an additional post, which seemed to be about the situation without directly addressing it. Carter wrote, “When the hate don’t work they start telling lies!”

The report further indicated that this isn’t the first time Abdul Carter has been late during the season. It, apparently, was a trend that former head coach Brian Daboll had been letting slide. However, he’s since been fired. So, there’s been a change in approach there with interim head coach Mike Kafka. The one-drive suspension came in his very first week on the job.

That suspension was particularly notable as the Giants have been struggling with injuries along the defensive line. Kayvon Thibodeaux, a starter for New York, was out with a shoulder injury, again testing their depth.

“I made a mistake during the week that was detrimental to the team,” Carter said. “That was the consequence, so (I) had to live with it.”

On that opening drive, the Packers quickly went down the field and scored. In the end, Green Bay won the game 27-20. So, that one touchdown drive could, hypothetically, be seen as the difference in the game, and it could have gone differently had Carter been on the field. At the same time, it wasn’t a very productive game overall for Carter, who had just one tackle.

The third overall pick in the 2025 NFL Draft out of Penn State, Abdul Carter has had a slow transition to the NFL. In 11 games, he has just one start. In that time, he has 23 total tackles and just one tackle for a loss with 0.5 sacks. Notably, he does have 2.5 sacks that have been wiped out due to penalties. However, on a more positive note, he does have 35 pressures.