Is 2025 the year for New York Giants edge defender Kayvon Thibodeaux?
There have been flashes of what he could be dating back to his rookie year. There was the strip-sack of Lamar Jackson to seal the Giants’ win over the Baltimore Ravens, as well as the sack-fumble-touchdown against the Washington Commanders that helped the Giants make the playoffs in 2022. He followed that up with an 11.5-sack season in 2023, which would normally be considered a “breakout” performance.
And yet Thibodeaux is widely treated as an afterthought in the Giants’ defensive front, a disposable asset who could be traded. He’s even considered an outright bust by some fans.
Part of the issue stems from the fact that Thibodeaux has been upfront about pursuing Michael Strahan’s single-season sack record of 22.0, set back in 2001.
Thibodeaux’s goals have been presented — or taken — as a statement of his own personal greatness. That he will break the record because he’s just that good.
Instead, he insists, he sets his sights high because he’s chasing greatness.
“I always have personal goals,” Thibodeaux said. “I think I start off with just trying to be the best and trying to break the record. I’m always going for the league record or Strahan’s record when it comes to sacks and tackles and things like that. For me, you know, I also just want to play my best ball, whatever that looks like, so not only the numbers, but having the film to match it. For me right now, in this part of the season, I’m focused on having the film to match how I want to play.”
“I feel like if you don’t have any goals, you don’t have any direction,” he added. “If you don’t have any things set out for what you want to do, it’s hard to figure out what you’re going to do. For me, I like to set the goals so that I can at least set a standard and say, ‘Am I playing to my standard?’ And that’s why I’ve added to not only just having the goals be the goals, but then also having the film to back it up because you may not get 22 sacks. You may not get 100-and something tackles, but if you fall somewhere in between that and then you have the film and the hard work and everything to back that up, then you can be considered still a top player.”
Thibodeaux mentioned putting good play on tape, even if he isn’t stacking the stat sheet, a few times on Thursday. And to be fair, there is a bit of “Leonard Williams” in Thibodeaux’s game. Williams had one of the highest pressure rates in the league at his position, but relatively few sacks to show for it.
And in going to the tape of his play last year, Thibodeaux was a couple steps and a few seconds shy of having a monster season. The stat sheet didn’t directly reflect it, but Thibodeaux put quality play on tape. In fact, he set a personal high-water mark for quarterback hits despite playing the fewest snaps of his career.
Teammate Brian Burns mentioned earlier this summer that he believes Thibodeaux changed at some point last year.
“KT flipped the switch last year. I don’t know if y’all peeped it, but he flipped the switch last year, playing a lot harder, playing a lot more physical,” Burns said at the start of camp. “I expect big things from KT this year.
“I can’t really put a finger on when it happened. I know he made a decision to make that switch. I know (outside linebackers) Coach Bullen had – I call him Charlie, only I can call him that. Charlie had a big influence on that switch with KT and I’m proud of what he’s been doing so far.”
Thibodeaux also credited Bullen with his improvement since the start of last year.
“Charlie Bullen has been a great asset to me and the rest of the guys in the room,” Thibodeaux said, “and continuing to kind of grow – not just my ability on the field, but know what weight I want to play at, know what size, know what side of the ball I like and just figuring out what works for me and kind of just honing in on it, using that as my strength.
“I don’t think it’s necessarily a certain technique, but I think it’s the consistency of greatness,” he added. “It’s understanding that, ‘Yeah, you know it, but let’s just go over it three more times.’ I think it’s that 10,000-hour mindset.”
Giants’ defensive line coach Andre Patterson spoke earlier this year about the time it takes (most) pass rushers to learn how to consistently finish their rushes.
“A lot of guys blow the rush when they get to the top of the rush,” Patterson said back in June. “A lot of guys are quick. A lot of guys are explosive. A lot of guys can go edge to edge. But when they get to the top of the rush, they become mechanical. And as a coach, it takes guys two, three, four years to figure that out.”
Patterson was asked about Abdul Carter and his knack for rushing the passer despite just one year as an edge defender. However, he might have been thinking about former Vikings edge Danielle Hunter when he talked about how long it can take some defenders to play freely at the top of their rushes.
Hunter was drafted out of LSU as a raw but physically talented edge. He had all the tools to be a start but wasn’t a sack artist coming out of college. And the first three years of Thibodeaux’s career mirror Hunter’s surprisingly closely. Hunter had 6.0, 12.5, and 7.0 sacks and 39 QB hits his first three years with Coach Patterson. Thibodeaux, meanwhile, had 4.0, 11.5, and 5.0 sacks and 46 QB hits since being drafted as as a young and talented, but not terribly prolific, EDGE.
Once Hunter hit his fourth year, it was off to the races. He averaged just under one sack a game (0.82 sacks per game) from 2018 to 2024. Could Thibodeaux be in for a similar leap?
“I think when you speak of flipping a switch, you know, good players only become great, quote-on-quote, when they have good coaching,” Thibodeaux said. “(There’s) not a lot of times you see players succeed without good coaches around them.”
Thibodeaux also has some great players around him. He was quick to credit Burns for his play in practice as well as games, and how that encourages him to raise his game.
“Michael Strahan told me when I got drafted, ‘It’s not about being one of the 11 guys out on the field. It’s about being the one out of the 11.’ So for him [Burns], I know he wants to be the best on the field,” Thibodeaux said. “I want to be the best on the field. Abdul, all the way to Jevón [Holland], all the way to the corners with Tae Banks and [Paulson] Adebo. It’s definitely a competitiveness, but I also think everybody is fighting their own battle and for him, the sky is the limit and for me, I love just kind of feeding off whether it’s his talent, his energy, and vice versa.”
The big question is whether Thibodeaux’s improvement will find its way to the stat sheet. There’s going to be a lot of competition for sacks in the Giants’ defense, and Thibodeaux may wind up generating more assists than sacks.
“This is one of those things where we’ll have to see how the cards play out on which way they slide [protection], which way they chip, or things like that,” Thibodeaux said. “But I definitely think it’s going to be a great opportunity for all of us. It’s going to be a race to the quarterback. I was laughing with Dex about it, like he’s already the fastest guy because he’s the closest, but now you got an even faster guy with Abdul in there, and you still got Burns on the other side so we’re definitely going to be nail-biting to see who gets that sack.”
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