Quarterback is, easily, the most valuable position on an NFL field. I’ve gone so far as to consider it the foundational position in roster construction, as opposed to merely a “cornerstone” position.
By the same token, pass rushers have risen in importance over the last couple years. The ability and traits to win one-on-one and directly disrupt the passer. And in that aspect, the 2026 New York Giants could be sitting on an embarrassment of riches.
Seth Walder of ESPN released their projections for
the Top 50 pass rushers in the NFL for 2026 this week. All three of the Giants’ edge defenders, Brian Burns, Abdul Carter, and Kayvon Thibodeaux, project to be among the 50 most productive pass rushers in the NFL.
If you consider that defenses want to have two effective pass rushers — in order to keep offenses from easily accounting for a lone pass rusher — then the Giants have three starters.
Let’s see what Walder has to say about the Giants’ pass rushers
6. Brian Burns, New York Giants
Projected mean 2026 sack total: 9.7
2025 sack total: 16.5Burns has always been a very good pass rusher — and something of a pass rush win rate darling — and exploded for 16.5 sacks in his second season in New York. And the Giants’ pass rush has gotten even deeper.
Those 16.5 sacks are enough to launch Burns, 28, into the top 10. But he has a few things working against him. His forecast is negatively affected by only having 8.5 sacks in 17 games in 2024. And while the Giants have a great pass rush, they aren’t expected to be a great team. Middling teams don’t play with a lead as often, which means fewer desperate opponents frequently passing to catch up.
Chris’ thoughts
Brian Burns is still the “Alpha” on the Giants’ defensive front and is their closer until someone proves otherwise. I see no reason why he should regress as a rusher, considering he added a real power aspect to his usual speed rush. Carter is currently listed as the starter in Dennard Wilson’s defense, but we’ll see plenty of rotation between the Giants’ front 7 players and each of their three edge defenders rushing from unexpected angles. We’ll also see Burns, Carter, and Thibodeaux benefitting from simulated blitzes creating free runs.
That said, I suspect Burns’ production will regress slightly from his 16.5 sack season a year ago, but that might have more to do with Carter and Thibodeaux each taking a step forward.
Particularly Carter.
22. Abdul Carter, New York Giants
Projected mean 2026 sack total: 7.0
2025 sack total: 4This is a bullish forecast for a player coming off a four-sack season — especially because the model does not explicitly consider draft capital (Carter was the third overall pick in 2025) in its computations.
But what it does see is a young player who had a top-10 pass rush win rate. That’s enough to generate a strong number despite being on a below-average team with a defensive coordinator who didn’t blitz much last season. I wouldn’t be shocked if Carter is in the top 10 of the sack leaderboard come January.
Chris’ thoughts
Carter’s rookie season was an undeniable disappointment, mostly of his own making. He constantly flashed in the first half of the year, but never lived up to his billing. It wasn’t until Mike Kafka got his attention with a pair of benchings that Carter began to really apply himself during the week and started taking over games.
In many ways, Carter’s 2025 season reminded me of Jason Pierre-Paul’s 2010 season. That was a disappointment as well, but coming from the other direction as JPP was still figuring out how to even play football. Folks remember how he didn’t produce much until the end of the season, but they tend to forget that he was an absolute demon on special teams all year long. We saw that work on special teams translate to the defense in his second season when he simply took over games and had a DPOY caliber year.
I think we can see the same thing this year from Carter. Not only was he Top-10 in win rate, he was 8th in total pressures and led the NFL in quick pressures. That was with half a season of indeterminate effort during the week and simply “out-athlete-ing” NFL athletes as a rookie. After John Harbaugh’s grueling camp, attention to detail, Dennard Wilson’s energy, and Charlie Bullen’s coaching?
I’m trying to avoid hyperbole, but I don’t think a “Micah Parsons”, “Young Von Miller”, or “Young Khalil Mack” type season is out of the question.
42. Kayvon Thibodeaux
2026 projected sack total: 5.9 sacks
2025 sack total: 2.5 (10 games)
Walder doesn’t offer his thoughts on Thibodeaux, so I’ll just jump to mine.
It’s somewhat fitting that Thibodeaux lands right next to Leonard Williams in the sack projection. Like Williams, Thibodeaux is much more of a “complete” defender who has every-down upside, but has largely proven to be better at generating pressure than finishing rushes. That isn’t to say that Thibodeaux can’t finish his rushes. He still finished with 11.5 sacks the last time he was in this style of defense and wasn’t asked to keep contain rather than rush aggressively.
Final thoughts
Now we’re going to zoom out for a minute before refocusing on Burns and Carter.
As Walder points out, the Giants need to put their opponents’ in position where they’re more likely to pass, and then keep the ball in the quarterback’s hands when they do so.
There’s been a lot of concern regarding the Giants’ run defense, but I suspect it will see a significant boost under Dennard Wilson. Where Shane Bowen relied on the defensive line to stack and shed blockers while the linebackers hung back at depth, I suspect we’ll see far more stunts and blitzes on run downs. In other words, my guess is that the Giants will be relying on their athleticism up front to shift the math and numbers game in their favor and blow up plays in the backfield, rather than catch them at the second level.
Walder also notes that the Giants’ offense might be too mediocre to force opposing offenses to keep up.
I’m not so sure.
Last year the Giants finished 13th in total yardage and 16th in touchdowns scored. That puts them in the same company as the Los Angeles Chargers and Denver Broncos — two teams with championship aspirations. And that was without Malik Nabers, missing Cam Skattebo for significant periods, and with Wan’Dale Robinson as the Giants’ primary offensive weapon.
We don’t know how the Giants’ offense will perform, but it also isn’t like they were the Raiders, Jets, or Browns last year.
There are only a few teams with pass rushes that can really rival the Giants’ potential — and that’s not even counting the blitzing upside of Arvell Reese, Micah McFadden or the Giants’ defensive backs.
It’s entirely possible that the Giants could wind up with a pair of Top 10 pass rushers if Burns maintains his form from a year ago and Carter takes the expected step forward. Not to mention a potential Top 20 pass rusher if Thibodeaux returns to his 2023 form.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, the Giants’ defense could be a lot of fun to watch this year.
