Kayvon Thibodeaux was an obvious potential trade candidate when the NFL season began.
The Giants‘ investment in fellow edge rushers Brian Burns and Abdul Carter, the team’s lowly 2025 prospects and Thibodeaux’s timeline as a fourth-year pro all pointed to the possibility of Joe Schoen swapping him out for assets by the middle of the season.
As Tuesday’s 4 p.m. league trade deadline approaches, however, trading Thibodeaux no longer feels like the obvious move.
The Giants’ pass rush is the only real strength of their team, even though Dexter Lawrence is having a down year and Carter is not getting home for sacks.
Schoen and Brian Daboll need to win some more games down the stretch. The Giants have never gotten better by getting rid of good players.
And Thibodeaux, 24, along with Burns, has been one of the only players setting a shining example of maximum effort with reasonable production on the roster.
Not to mention Thibodeaux was Schoen’s first ever draft pick, No. 5 overall in 2022, and it would be unlike the GM to bail on one of his few selections who is rounding into a solid player.
No. 5 on the Giants got a hug from co-owner John Mara on the field pregame Sunday, as well.
“John is a very passionate owner,” Thibodeaux said. “He’s a guy who loves the game. Being able to connect with him, obviously he’s going through some tough times. But having him there is always valuable to the team.”
Thibodeaux’s contract is a factor, obviously, and that’s a major reason the trade chatter started in the first place.
The Giants picked up his fifth-year option for $14.7 million in 2026 already, but can Thibodeaux really expect a big payday in New York?
He needs better stats to validate a massive extension, and the Giants already have Burns ($34.75 million) and Carter ($10.2 million) on their salary cap in 2026 in addition to Thibodeaux’s big fifth-year option number.
The club could then keep Thibodeaux under control for the 2027 season with the franchise tag, as well.
If Schoen and the Giants hold onto Thibodeaux now, they could negotiate a multi-year contract with Thibodeaux soon to cover the next two to three years and avoid the tag mess.
Or, if they don’t want to keep that much money invested in the defensive line on top of Lawrence’s $26.9 million cap number in 2026, they can get the best value for Thibodeaux now and slide his contract off the books.
The Indianapolis Colts and New England Patriots are among the most likely suitors for edge rushers as the deadline approaches.
The Philadelphia Eagles just acquired the Miami Dolphins’ Jaelan Phillips for a third-round pick, shortly after last week’s 49ers trade for New England edge Keion White with a sixth-seventh round pick swap attached.
Thibodeaux said Sunday that “I want to be here” with the Giants. The Giants reportedly have told teams in the past that it would take a first-round pick to pry Thibodeaux away, and recently they have rebuffed some offers.
It’s intriguing to imagine that Thibodeaux hypothetically could be used as a piece in a player for player trade, perhaps in their pursuit of a wide receiver, if that’s what gets something done for an expensive player like Miami’s Jaylen Waddle.
And there is a chance the Giants find takers for fringe players Evan Neal and Jalin Hyatt for a late-round pick here and there.
But it’s likely that this deadline will be a dud, and at least in Thibodeaux’s case for the Giants, that’s a good thing.
Because it would send the wrong message to this locker room to get rid of one of the few players busting his tail in the middle of all this losing.
“I just gotta keep getting better, man,” Thibodeaux said. “We got a long season ahead. There’s eight games left. We got a chance to still pull this thing out. So I’m just focused on getting better and contributing to the team as much as I can.”
