The New York Giants thought they had a steal on their hands when they selected Georgia linebacker Lorenzo Carter in the third round of the 2018 NFL Draft. As a rookie, Carter played in 15 games, starting two, and recored four sacks and had four passes defensed. Last year, he started 12 games but his stats barely improved.
The plateauing had the Giants a little concerned. The book on Carter, a high school stud who had a college career that fell below expectations, was that he flashes on some plays then disappears on others. The incoming Giants’ coaching staff, specifically outside linebackers coach Bret Bielema, faced the challenge of unlocking Carter’s massive potential in Year Three.
So far, so good. Carter was absolutely dominant in the Giants’ first full-team scrimmage on Friday night, racking up four “sacks” and looking very much like a player who has taken that next step in his career. Carter may have had five sacks on the night. Since the quarterbacks are in red jerseys, defenders are not allowed to bring them to the ground, so sacks are basically imaginary during scrimmages.
“Zo has been very particular in training camp, he has made a lot of improvement,” head coach Joe Judge said after the scrimmage. “He plays with a high motor. He is developing a skill set to really expand on what his game has been in the past. Bret (Bielema) is doing a phenomenal job with him. The offensive line, to be honest with you, it’s live competition. We’re going out there, there’s some different tools we can use to help these guys in games. We chose to keep this a little bit vanilla tonight so it takes a little bit of tools you can use through game planning away from it. We have to see more improvement in the on one matchups and how they handle it across the board.”
Carter, who usually plays the WILL linebacker role in the Giants’ 3-4 alignment, was on the field for 65% of the Giants’ defensive snaps in 2019 and only 40% of the snaps in his rookie season of 2018. Yet, his production, as stated, was basically identical.
Bielema, who coaches all of his charges evenly, recently spoke about Carter and another former linebacker the Giants selected in the third round of the draft, Oshane Ximines.
“I think the part that’s been fun to work with those two, and really the room in general, is they’ve bought into everything Joe (Judge) has talked about since day one,” said Bielema. ” As a positional coach, we go in there, we talk about specific things that pertain to outside linebacker play. It’s easy to see that both of them have a lot of talent, a lot of physical, raw skills that they’ve been able to hone and kind of be specific. But now to fit into our scheme, they’re going to work every day. They’re doing their daily grind, they keep stacking days together, and then hopefully the results will start to show up on Sundays the way they envision, the way we envision them, and hopefully everybody alike on the outside world as well. ”
The Giants will be in terrific shape if one or both of those players make the “leap” this season. As a fall back measure, they went out and signed Green Bay’s Kyler Fackrell and then adroitly tendered Markus Golden, who went unsigned this summer. Throw in former University of Minnesota star Carter Coughlin and the Giants have gone from a dearth of talent at the edge rusher spot to practically having an embarrassment of riches.
“A lot of talent, honestly. A lot of raw ability,” said Fackrell when sizing up the unit this week.  “I think we’ve been working, we’ve been getting a lot better in the one on ones and everything. That work has been great. We were watching some clips from last year with pressures and stuff. As a rookie, X produced. I think he had four, four and a half sacks, which is awesome for a rookie. The same kind of thing with Zo. He’s going into his third year. I think it’ll be… It’s a fun room, it’s a fun group to be a part of. The mixture of us as outside linebackers as well as all the talent in the interior d-line. I think third down is going to be a fun down.”
The Giants hope it is, too.