Big Blue View
The New York Giants 34-25 win over the Buffalo Bills in the preseason opener was about as good a start to the year as we could have asked.
From Russell Wilson smoothly operating the offense against the Bills’ starters while missing several of the Giants’ best players to what I can only describe as a “Victory Tush Push” after a goal line stand, there was a lot of good on Saturday night.
Sprinkled throughout the night were performances from the Giants’ 2025 rookie class. The Giants are depending on a lot going right if they want a quick turnaround from the mess that was 2023 and 2024. But if they want to build a consistent winner that can be competitive for years to come, they’ll need their rookies to form the foundation.
This was our first look at this year’s rookies in live game action, so how did they do against real NFL competition?
Six snaps.
That’s all the work Carter got spread over two defensive series ( which totaled eight plays), and that’s all the third overall pick needed to put the NFL on notice.
Three of Carter’s snaps were rushing the passer, and he generated three pressures. One was against guard O’Cyrus Torrence and the other two were against four-time Pro Bowl left tackle Dion Dawkins, and Carter simply didn’t look like a rookie as he blew past the Pro Bowler. The rookie’s ankle flexion, in particular, is otherworldly.
I won’t belabor the point: Good player is good. But I will let Brian Baldinger tell you just how good.
This is another one where I won’t belabor the point: Dart had an excellent first showing, and did so against many of the Bills’ starters.
It wasn’t perfect and there were a couple throws that seemed to get away from him toward the end of the half. That said, I was extremely impressed by how smoothly Dart operated.
He naturally flowed within the pocket was efficient working through his progressions. There multiple times when he visibly got to his fourth read, and also understood not only when to find his check-down, but also where his answers were. His touch and ball placement were generally very good, as was his decision making. He never really made a poor decision with the ball or was slow in reaching his decisions.
Alexander’s debut wasn’t nearly as spectacular as those of Carter and Dart.
The defensive tackle had to wait until the Giants’ put in their backups to see the field, and he didn’t have much of an impact once out there. Part of that was by design, as he was pretty frequently asked to hold double teams and create one-on-one matchups for his teammates. The other part is a hint at what the rookie needs to work on as practices and the preseason progress.
Alexander did show off the explosiveness we...
