New York Giants pass rusher Kayvon Thibodeaux has his sights set high for the 2025 season, just like all of his previous NFL seasons.
Thibodeaux was the fifth overall pick in the 2022 NFL Draft and is heading into his fourth year. Yet, injuries and inconsistency have kept him from leaping from rising star to superstar. He has 21 career sacks.
Coming into his NFL career, Thibodeaux set out the goal to break Pittsburgh Steelers star T.J. Watt’s sack record, which is 22.5, tied for the most in NFL history with Michael Strahan.
“Every time I come out on the field, I want to have more sacks than I ever had, more tackles than I ever had and whatever I’ve got to do to help the team,” Thibodeaux said. “Yeah, I’m still going for the record. I’m going to go for the record every year.”
For Thibodeaux, this will be much tougher to attain than previous seasons. The Giants drafted star Penn State edge rusher Abdul Carter and still have another star pass rusher in Brian Burns.
That does not mean Thibodeaux will not get significant playing time, but he will not have the volume necessary to chase Watt’s sack record this season, more than likely.
Still, Thibodeaux hopes to take his game for good to excellent this season, and he sees finishing as the most significant aspect of doing that.
“I didn’t finish,” Thibodeaux said. “I think I had like five half-sacks, which should’ve been whole sacks. I had probably like four or five missed tackles at the sack point, so just finishing my plays and just being able to come out on top in every situation.”
Thibodeaux suffered a wrist injury last year that required surgery, hurting what likely would have been another solid season for the former Oregon star. Either way, he has a lofty goal set, but it will be an uphill climb for Thibodeaux to achieve it.