Kayvon Thibodeaux profile: Why the New York Giants drafted the EDGE 

With the fifth pick in the 2022 NFL draft, the New York Giants selected Kayvon Thibodeaux.

Thibodeaux stands at 6’5” and weighs in at 250lbs. The number two overall recruit in the country in 2019, he looked like a future number top-five pick right away. He recorded 14 tackles for loss, nine sacks, and three passes batted down as a freshman.

His second season was slightly less impressive. Considering how late the Pac-12 joined the party and that it took him a while to get going, Thibodeaux was a nightmare for USC quarterback Kedon Slovis and battled Alijah Vera-Tucker effectively in the conference championship game.

This past year, he was limited by a sprained ankle, but he was still a problem when on the field. He recorded 12 TFLs, seven sacks, and a couple of forced fumbles. Making him a first-team All-American.

Though he continues to fill out his frame, Thibodeaux still looks and moves more like an oversized wide receiver. He has the raw power and size to make offensive linemen look small when they collide on run plays.

Kayvon Thibodeaux Strengths

Thibodeaux often explodes through blockers, lifting them from the bottom, bending them backward, and extending his arms to find the ball. He has no issues shedding blocks and closing in on the ball if it ventures too close.

He has the change-of-direction skills and short-area burst to legitimately play both the quarterback and the option-man on zone reads and speed options. He possesses the agilityto slip underneath kick-out blocks in condensed spaces. You see Thibodeaux completely blow up some run plays, where he’s lined up over the tight-end and crashes through the C-gap.

Whether it’s having somebody crack back at him or colliding with a pulling lineman, Thibodeaux has tremendous core strength and balance to barely be affected. Oregon had him slant inside at times, where he was able to stop any flow to the front-side on zone runs. From the backside, he can shuffle along initially and then showcase quick acceleration to chase down fast ball carriers.

There was a snap late against Utah in that Pac-12 title game in his freshman season where the right tackle instantly flipped his hips and still barely touched the talented edge rusher because of his ridiculous speed off the edge. That was when he announced himself to the world; he recorded 2.5 sacks and blocked a punt, despite playing limited snaps.

Thibodeaux's first step is pretty much in a class of his own. He quickly gets to the outside while packing a solid rip, creating a shorter angle to the quarterback. He then uses serious force to bury his hands into the blocker, often sitting them down.

He did this a few times in the 2020 conference championship against USC, where he recorded several hits on quarterback Kedon Slovis. He was a significant factor in forcing him to throw three interceptions.

Thibodeaux also has one of the deadliest up-and-under moves I’ve seen from a college prospect, thanks to how he can stress the outside initially. He is a real problem in any one-on-one battles upfront. He can slither through the O-line and then the punching power to work through contact if somebody does slide in front of him.

While he may not win cleanly all the time as a pass-rusher, he consistently adjusts to take a direct path to the quarterback. He gets there shockingly fast once he makes an angle for himself. He can change direction on the spot. You see it in a few snaps where he’s chasing the passer, who decides to redirect, and Thibodeaux sticks his foot in the ground and completely changes direction. I saw him get cut at the line and still bear-crawl his way to the quarterback without losing much time.

He lined up at three-technique on rushing downs more last season, where his quickness was too much for the guards to handle. He could then push through the inside shoulder to open that lane for himself. He had 41 additional pressures on 290 pass-blocking snaps with his seven sacks last year.

Kayvon Thibodeaux Weaknesses

While Thibodeaux can create pretty direct angles towards the quarterback by tilting around the corner, he doesn’t have a great bend to actively flatten at the top of his rush. At this point, he is engaging offensive linemen too straight-up instead of stressing the edge. He should still be more cognizant of building up a pass-rush plan altogether. He doesn’t feature a very diverse set of rush maneuvers at this point, often being content with running into blockers and trying to drive them backward.

Thibodeaux’s arms barely measure above the 33-inch mark, and he’s on the smaller side for edge defenders. In the running game, he gets overly focused on just physically overwhelming blockers rather than defending the scheme and seeing the ball throughout. He is too undisciplined as a contain defender, wanting to peak and often shoot inside, which allows the back to work around him on multiple occasions. And while that may be overstated, he doesn’t chase the ball relentlessly.

Conclusion on Kayvon Thibodeaux

It is understandable why many prefer Hutchinson as an immediate impact-starter. Thibodeaux still has a long way to go to become a truly dominant player, but the high-end talent we saw in him was just on a different level.

The talk about Thibodeaux being focused on his brand and overly confident is ridiculous. However, he could handled skipping the on-field workout at the combine better. People are saying he took a step back last year, but not only was the ankle bothering him, but they need to go back to the Cal game, where he created 11 pressures in the second half alone. Look at what he did to those UCLA tackles.

In terms of the type of player you should expect, while the size would suggest a Von Miller type coming out of college, he presents more of a Jadeveon Clowney-type profile. Thibodeaux had stretches of dominance in college, and though he’s still far from reaching his potential, he has a high ceiling.