Harry Carson: Giants pick Kayvon Thibodeaux's 'bravado' reminiscent of Lawrence Taylor
Giants NFL football draft pick Kayvon Thibodeaux speaks during a press conference in East Rutherford, N.J. on Saturday, April 30, 2022. Credit: AP/Noah K. Murray
Hall of Famer Harry Carson told Newsday the arrival of Kayvon Thibodeaux to the Giants reminds him a bit of another linebacker the Giants drafted in the first round all the way back in 1981.
A kid named Lawrence Taylor.
Carson said he hasn’t seen enough film of Thibodeaux on film to make an accurate football comparison between him and the greatest Giant of all time and one of the best defensive players in NFL history. But, he said, he sees early similarities in their “bravado” and “confidence.”
“He’s interesting,” Carson said of Thibodeaux.
Carson, attending the United Way of New York’s 29th annual Gridiron Gala in Manhattan on Tuesday, said he hopes above all else Thibodeaux can help the Giants defense make stops and improve their record after so many years of losing football.
Thibodeaux has said he is not well versed in Giants history, but he is about to begin his career with the team in the shadow of it. Each of the two championship eras in Giants football were helped greatly by the presence of a dominant edge rusher who was eventually enshrined in Canton, with Taylor in the 1980s and 90s and Michael Strahan in the 2000s.
Is that a legacy Thibodeaux can rise to? Or maybe even top?
“Hopefully,” Carson said, “he can one day have them saying: ‘Lawrence who? Michael who?’ ”
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.
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