Charlie Bullen remembers the day Abdul Carter came into his life.

It was Jan. 18, 2025, a Saturday, and someone from the scouting department asked him to take a look at a kid from Penn State who was going to be a potential candidate for the Giants’ third overall pick. It was pretty early in the process for that; Bullen was still putting closure on the 2024 season and coaches typically don’t get involved in evaluations until February or March.

“But with the nature of the pick and where it was at, I got a little nudge to do some homework,” the second-year outside linebackers coach said.

It was also his son James’ first birthday, so Carter’s film waited in Bullen’s inbox while the family celebrated and went to the New York Aquarium. When Bullen got back to work that Monday, however, he was pleasantly surprised to see another kind of shark circling its prey.

“It was a quick experiment in terms of watching the film,” Bullen said. “It was an early ask, an early eval, and an early answer. It was a yes.”

That’s how much of a no-brainer it was for the Giants to draft Carter. When he was still available to them as they came on the clock in April, which was about the only wild card in the evening, they made their call just as swiftly and emphatically as Bullen had.

Now that he is with them, Carter needs to be a no-brainer player for the Giants as a rookie as well. They shouldn’t overthink him, shouldn’t get cute with him, shouldn’t worry about the very few things he can’t do.

He’s a natural predator. Just put him out on the field anywhere you can find the room and enjoy the spoils that will come from it.

Because of the nature of their positions and the structure of this offseason program, Carter has been a bit overshadowed on the field by another rookie first-rounder, quarterback Jaxson Dart. These are essentially non-contact passing camps so it’s hard to tally sacks and easy to evaluate Dart’s throws. Naturally there has been plenty of buzz about the details of the “Jaxson Dart Plan” this spring and how quickly the Giants expect to have him on the field.

The Abdul Carter Plan should be much more straight-forward.

“Abdul has some special traits about him,” head coach Brian Daboll said. “Some of them you can see out here, obviously his ability to bend and get off and create some issues in the backfield. But we have to play the run game, we have to play the pass game. He's smart, he's picked up things. We've used him in a number of different areas. I'm glad he's here, he’s done a nice job.”

And once training camp begins late next month and the players are in pads, Carter should start to shine even more. Perhaps even brighter than Dart. Possibly brighter than anyone else on the defense.

Rarely does such a talent come along. It’s certainly been a while since the Giants have had a rookie defender capable of making that kind of impact, perhaps as long ago as when Lawrence Taylor first walked through the door. There are stories about Harry Carson and other players sizing up Taylor when he arrived in 1981, how they teased him about his skinny legs and the hoopla with which he arrived. But when Taylor got on the practice field they were converted believers.

That’s the kind of talent, tenacity and instinct Carter has brought with him. Over-coaching him and the schemes to utilize him will only muck that up.

For Bullen, the comparisons that came to mind while watching Carter go back to his earliest days in the league with the Cardinals. He said Carter flashed like Haasan Reddick in the way he moved and Chandler Jones in the way he finishes. “[Jones] is the best finisher I’ve been around and Abdul reminded me of that,” Bullen said.

Defensive line coach Andre Patterson had his own flashback. He said Carter’s innate ability to make tactical decisions against blockers reminded him of Elvis Dumervil whom Patterson coached as a rookie in Denver in 2006.

“I’m watching [Dumervil] on tape and I’m like ‘This dude knows how to win at the top of the rush,’” Patterson recalled of his thinking two decades ago. “I hadn’t seen that on tape again until I saw Abdul. It takes drill after drill after drill to get a guy to feel that. This dude was born with that.”

Carter’s teammates have been impressed, too.

“Man, he's a beast,” fellow linebacker Kayvon Thibodeaux said. “He's been doing his thing. He's fast, explosive, smart. I’m excited.”

Added tackle Jermaine Eluemunor, who has been charged with trying to block Carter: “I think he's going to be a really good player. It's been fun playing against him. He's an explosive kid.”

It’s been two months since the Giants drafted Carter and he has undergone the transformation from a prospect to a player. Their player.

“The traits are pretty much similar to what the tape showed,” Bullen said. “When we get to practicing real NFL football with pads on that’ll be the test to see where his technique is at. But as far as his traits, they are pretty much as good as advertised.”

The Giants thought highly of Carter all along. Now they know it.