Giants hoping for more game-changing moments from Kayvon Thibodeaux this season
Kayvon Thibodeaux #5 of the Giants defends during the first quarter against the Dallas Cowboys at MetLife Stadium on Sunday, Sep. 10, 2023 in East Rutherford, New Jersey. Credit: Jim McIsaac
Kayvon Thibodeaux said he went back and watched last year’s Thanksgiving Day game against Dallas “1,000 times” in preparation for Sunday night’s rematch with the Cowboys.
Why wouldn’t he? In many regards it was his best game as a pro. He played 55 snaps and was able to apply steady strain on Dak Prescott, recording nine total pressures on the quarterback and five hits, both of which would stand as season-highs off his rookie year.
But no matter how many times he pressed play, rewound, pressed play again –a zillion if he had the time or inclination -- he just wouldn’t have found what he was looking for.
That game was one of two last season against Dallas in which the Giants did not record a sack. Both of them were losses. Shocker, right? So despite Thibodeaux’s impressive attempts, he was unable to ever make the kind of play for which he was drafted.
A game-changing one.
“I had a great game, but we had no sacks, so you talk about being able to finish and being able to make plays in big-time games, I’ve got to make them,’’ he said last week. “We lost, so I feel bad. You think about if I would have got there and if I would have made those plays we probably would have won.’’
Those are the ones that have haunted Thibodeaux since his first season with the Giants ended, the ones that made him say watching that film “kind of disgusts me a little bit when I look at myself” and leaves “a little ‘cringe’ feeling.’’
They’re the ones the Giants need him to start making this season if they are going to squeeze as much out of their roster – and this defense in particular – as will be required to get where they want to be.
They cannot continue to live in that sackless universe and succeed.
The Cowboys have a few reliable players who do can be counted on for regular quarterback takedowns, Micah Parsons the standout among them. He’s a guy who can take over in key situations, wreck games, create fear in opposing defenses.
The Giants think Thibodeaux can do that for them.
Actually, they think he can do more.
They see last year’s fifth overall pick as more of a versatile tool than Parsons.
“He brings so much flexibility to the defense that people don’t really understand that he does everything,” defensive coordinator Wink Martindale said. “Say there is 700 plays, you are going to like 650 of them and not even talk about the 10 sacks or eight sacks or nine-and-a-half sacks, whatever number gets placed on him, because that’s just a blip on the radar screen for everything else that he does.’’
That sounds a lot more like Michael Strahan’s bio that Parsons’, to be honest.
So far Thibodeaux is, unfortunately for now, right in Strahan’s footsteps. Strahan’s career began with a slow start, too. He had 1.0 sack as a rookie in 1992, never more than 7.5 in any of his first four years, but then exploded into the double-digit machine that would eventually set the single-season record with 22.5 in 2001.
“Any player that’s judged with the microscope that he is and when they have success and when they really take that next step is when they become finishers at the quarterback and finishers when they get their hands on the football and things of that nature,’’ Martindale said. “But you know when everybody talks about sacks and everything else, they forget about him sprinting 40 yards down the field and tackling a tailback that’s running. Guys don’t usually make those plays. He makes those plays, so it’s going to be enjoyable to watch.’’
Perhaps that Strahan-level success looms ahead for Thibodeaux.
Until it does, though, he’ll be in the shadow of Parsons among NFC East defensive demons.
Martindale said it is “unfair” to compare Parsons to Thibodeaux.
Probably. But too bad.
In two seasons, Parsons has 26.5 sacks and 56 quarterback hits. Thibodeaux, in one season that started slowly due to a preseason knee injury last summer, had four sacks and 13 quarterback hits as a rookie. He sat on 1 sack for most of the season before recording three of them in the final four contests.
“I mean I think they both have a lot of things they do really well,” Martindale said. “Some different things that some do better than others, and vice versa.”
Thibodeaux is certainly aware that folks are all too happy to line his production up against his Dallas counterpart’s, following a long tradition that goes back just as far as the rivalry between the two franchises.
“I think when you look at the raw numbers, he’s been able to do a lot of great things,” Thibodeaux said of Parsons. “I’m trying to emulate that. He’s been able to succeed early, which is great. Yeah, I’ll let you guys do the comparing. Me, I’m just trying to keep striving and keep continuing to try to do what he’s been able to do.”
Let’s face it, that means starting to rack up sacks.
No, they are not the be-all, end-all of stats for a defensive player. But for Thibodeaux to start to take steps up the ladder of recognition – and for the Giants to succeed this season -- he has to register at least a few more of them this year than he did as a rookie.
It sure would be nice if a few even popped up when he starts scouring his tape from Sunday’s game in preparation for the next Dallas meeting in November.
Tom Rock began covering sports for Newsday in 1996 and became its NFL columnist in 2022. He previously was Newsday's Giants beat writer beginning in 2008.
