The Giants lost to the Packers on Sunday afternoon, 27-20, in New York’s first game since the franchise fired Brian Daboll and Mike Kafka took over as interim head coach. There was a notable absence on the first defensive drive of the day for Big Blue, however: Abdul Carter did not take the field to defend Green Bay’s first series. He subbed in afterwards and played every remaining snap of the contest, finishing with one tackle and one quarterback hit. Afterwards Carter confirmed he missed the opening drive because he made a “mistake” but didn’t offer more details. Kafka was not particularly forthcoming about the matter in his postgame press conference, either.
On Monday, the reason for Carter’s benching appeared to come to light. The Athletic’s Dan Duggan reported the 2025 first-round pick was held out of the opening drive of the game because he slept through a team walk-through.
