{"id":293530,"date":"2026-07-23T17:26:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-23T21:26:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/?p=293530"},"modified":"2026-07-23T17:26:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-23T21:26:09","slug":"new-york-giants-defenders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2026\/07\/23\/new-york-giants-defenders\/","title":{"rendered":"Which New York Giants Defenders Were Predicted to Take a Step Forward in 2026?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The New York Giants failed to play complementary football in 2025. While the team averaged 22.4 points per game offensively, they allowed 25.8 points per game last season. That is why New York finished with a 4-13 record. Recently, former NFL player turned analyst Bucky Brooks released his All-Breakout Defensive Team<\/a> for 2026. Two New York Giants Defenders made the list. Who does Brooks believe will have a strong 2026 campaign?<\/p>\n

Brooks Predicts These New York Giants Defenders Will Take a Step Forward in 2026<\/h2>\n

Abdul Carter, Outside Linebacker<\/h3>\n

With the third overall pick in the 2025 NFL draft, the Giants selected Abdul Carter<\/a> out of Penn State. After finishing his collegiate career as an All-American, Carter was expected to take the league by storm as a rookie. The talented linebacker\/edge rusher finished with an underwhelming four sacks in 17 games and six starts. His sack total was not what fans or the team expected. However, there were some positive takeaways from Carter’s rookie season.<\/p>\n

First off, Carter finished with an impressive 66 pressures in 2025. That was 11th amongst all qualified players at his position. On top of that, Carter had 48 quick pressures as a rookie. Those are pressures in two and a half seconds or less. Carter ranked first in the NFL for that statistic. That is why NFL analyst Brooks believes Carter is one of two New York Giants Defenders who can have a breakout campaign in 2026.<\/p>\n

Last season, Carter played under defensive coordinator Shane Bowen. Fans and analysts believed Bowen was not playing Carter to his full potential. Following an overtime loss to the Lions, Bowen was fired, and Charlie Bullen was named interim defensive coordinator. Bullen helped Carter build late success in 2025. The coaching, players, analysts, and fans are all bullish on Carter taking a massive leap in year two. What will his sack total be in 2026? Can he reach double digits for the first time in his career?<\/p>\n

Darius Alexander, Defensive Tackle<\/h3>\n

<\/smartframe-embed><\/p>\n

This offseason, the Giants parted ways with Dexter Lawrence<\/a>. The veteran defensive tackle requested a trade, and New York sent him to Cincinnati. In return, the team received the 10th overall pick in the 2026 NFL draft. New York used that pick to select Miami’s Francis “Sisi” Mauigoa. With Lawrence’s departure, the team has some questions at defensive tackle entering 2026.<\/p>\n

The Giants have signed several veteran interior defenders, including DJ Reader<\/a> and Shely Harris. However, the team is hoping one player can take a year-two leap. That would be 2025 third-round pick out of Toledo, Darius Alexanders. Alexander entered the NFL at 25, and he’ll turn 26 before the 2026 regular season starts. In 2025, Alexander’s playing time was limited due to the team having Lawrence. He was on the field for 38% of New York’s defensive plays last season.<\/p>\n

Expect that number to skyrocket in 2026. On the team’s current depth chart ahead of training camp, Alexander is listed as a starter. That may have been Roy Robertson-Harris’ role, but he tore his Achilles this offseason. That has opened the runway for Alexander to see increased playing time this season. During his 2025 campaign, Alexander played in 16 of the team’s 17 games and made two starts. He finished the year with three and a half sacks, 20 combined tackles, four tackles for loss, and six quarterback hits. NFL analyst Bucky Brooks is optimistic about Alexander and Carter for the 2026 season. That is why he has them listed as two New York Giants defenders who could have a year two breakout. Training camp begins on July 28 for the Giants.<\/p>\n

Main Image: Stephen R. Sylvanie-Imagn Images<\/em><\/p>\n

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Which New York Giants Defenders were predicted to take a step forward in 2026?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5802,"featured_media":293601,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6431,20,36],"tags":[32992,33349,4752,7300],"class_list":["post-293530","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nfl-teams","category-giants","category-nfl-news","tag-abdul-carter","tag-darius-alexander","tag-dexter-lawrence","tag-new-york-giants-news"],"modified_by":"Mike Roberts","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/293530","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5802"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=293530"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/293530\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":293610,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/293530\/revisions\/293610"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/293601"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=293530"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=293530"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=293530"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}