ClutchPoints
As active as the New York Giants have been in the 2025 NFL offseason, they have yet to make noise in the trade market outside of the draft. However, with training camp on deck, Giants’ edge-rusher Kayvon Thibodeaux continues to be a popular name brought up in discussions.
Thibodeaux, the Giants’ 2022 first-round pick, has been on the rumored trade block for months. With just one double-digit sack season in his first three years, Thibodeaux’s outlook got murkier after New York took Abdul Carter at No. 3 in the 2025 NFL Draft. Drafting Carter was the second significant move general manager Joe Schoen made in the pass-rushing market, after trading for two-time Pro Bowler Brian Burns in 2024.
Despite drafting Carter, the Giants have been adamant that they would not trade Thibodeaux. New York picked up his fifth-year option within weeks of the draft, claiming that the Oregon product would stick around. Schoen claimed he “can’t have enough pass-rushers” on his roster and wants Brian Daboll to evenly rotate each of Burns, Carter and Thibodeaux.
Daboll has since doubled down on the idea of playing all three pass-rushers at once, saying he likes the idea of playing Carter as an off-ball linebacker. Daboll was also a fan of playing all three of his top edge-rushers on the interior of defensive coordinator Shane Bowen’s 3-4 scheme.
Regardless of how the Giants want to play it out, the situation is already messy early in the 2025 offseason. They might not want to trade Thibodeaux, but they should be open to fielding offers for him. If the right opportunity presents itself, the Giants need to pull the trigger and trade Thibodeaux before training camp begins.
If the Giants figure out how to rotate Burns, Carter and Thibodeaux in together, they would not be the first team to solve a similar issue. The Buffalo Bills, Schoen and Daboll’s former organization, routinely have the deepest defensive line rotation in the league and see annual success with that approach.
The situation will not be an issue for the Giants, but will potentially cause a lack of opportunity and frustrate the odd man out of the rotation. Carter has reportedly lived up to the hype and then some in OTAs and minicamp, furthering the belief that Thibodeaux is the third wheel. Barring injury, there is no reason for Burns, who led the team with 17 tackles for loss in 2024, to lose any snaps.
While Thibodeaux has his ups and downs, he still has elite potential. He had just 5.5 sacks in 2024, but generated 20 total pressures in just 12 games. Thibodeaux has repeatedly claimed he is looking to top his career-high 11.5 sacks in 2025, a goal that would only be possible with a full workload.
The primary issue for Thibodeaux with the Giants’ current approach is his lack of versatility. Thibodeaux played 593 total defensive snaps in 2024, with only three of them [coming from...
