New York Giants defensive coordinator Shane Bowen’s offseason could not have gone much better. Management invested $150 million to shore up his defense and spent the No. 3 pick at the 2025 NFL Draft to bring in game-changing edge rusher Abdul Carter from Penn State.
The highly-touted pass rusher now enters a situation in which three men—joining Kayvon Thibodeaux and Brian Bruns—compete for two spots on each edge of the defensive line.
“You got three guys for two spots when you look at it from the outside in,” Bowen said. “It’s a really good problem to have. Got three really good players, three really talented players. Two of them that have done it in this league at a high level.
“I think that’s something from a staff standpoint that we’re working through, trying to find a way. Ultimately, we want to get our best 11 on the field, whatever way we got to maneuver to do that. We got to find ways to get the guys that can impact the game on the field.”
The name of the game for Bowen will be taking advantage of the versatility that Carter provides. The young prospect played off-ball linebacker at Penn State, which presents the Giants with more opportunities to have all three edge rushers on the field at the same time.
That being said, Carter has been drafted as an edge rusher, and it is imperative that he adapts to that position at the game’s highest level.
“When you look at Abdul’s versatility, you know he can affect the quarterback in multiple positions,” assistant general manager Brandon Brown said. “That was the biggest thing. When you have Burns, [Thibodeaux], Abdul, how can you get our best players, our front seven, aligned and on the field as much as possible to help affect the quarterback?
“I think when you look at his early tape at Penn State, you can see him playing from stacked alignment. When you have a premium athlete like Abdul, he can rush from a stacked linebacker position, rush over a guard. Same thing with Burns, it gives you the versatility to flip-flop. And with KT, to create the best matchup on a week-to-week basis. The ability to be multiple was really advantageous for us in terms of evaluating Abdul. Actually seeing true application of it. It’s not a hypothetical projection, we’ve seen it.”
There does not appear to be much protesting coming from Burns or Thibodeaux to assume different positions to make this equation work.
“You could do a lot. I mean, we’re all similar but different in a way,” Burns said. “We can interchange, and we can really add a lot of versatility to any of our third-down packages or just the game in general. So, yeah, it’s exciting… It’s going to challenge offenses to figure out what we’re doing. And if you can put us in different spots doing the same thing, it’ll be confusing at a certain point.”
Bowen and the Giants‘ defense have an opportunity to be the focal point of a rebuilding team, which certainly sets a strong foundation moving forward. The best teams in franchise history have been predicated on defense, and it appears general manager Joe Schoen is taking that route to turn Big Blue around.
