Kayvon
Thibodeaux.
Kayvon
Thibodeaux.
Oregon· 6'4"· 254 lb· 4.58s 40
"The most famous prospect in the class fell to No. 5, and the tape-between-the-flashes question never fully left him: productive enough to defend the pick, never dominant enough to silence it."Pre-draft read
Thibodeaux rushed mostly from a wide edge alignment at Oregon, sometimes with his hand down and sometimes standing, and the appeal is the first step: an explosive get-off that forces tackles to open early, paired with a long-arm and a swim that both work off that threat. He converts speed to power well enough to walk a set back into the quarterback.
The second trait is disruption beyond the sack column, with 35.5 career tackles for loss coming from chasing runs down the line and beating blocks on the backside. He can be handled by tackles who get depth quickly and match his hands, and the pad level rises when the first move fails. The signature is explosion; the question is consistency snap to snap.
Attacking four-man front or 3-4 outside linebacker role that lets him rush upfield from a wide alignment instead of reading and reacting
Year 1: starting edge rusher on a rotation that keeps his snaps fresh. Ceiling: double-digit sack starter who wins early in the down with explosion and length.
A two-gap odd front that asks him to read blocks and hold ground head-up on a tackle, which neutralizes his get-off and exposes his lack of a second move.
He needs a rush plan and a coach who demands the same effort on the 40th snap as the 4th.
Kayvon Thibodeaux's Top Plays Of The 2021 Season
Junior-season reel of the get-off and backside chase plays.
Oregon EDGE Kayvon Thibodeaux Film Breakdown
Pre-draft breakdown of his rush package and the consistency questions.
Kayvon Thibodeaux and the Art of the Pass Rush
Technique feature on how he sequences speed and power off the edge.
Thibodeaux was the presumptive No. 1 pick for two years before the draft actually happened. A five-star recruit who left Los Angeles for Eugene, he started as a true freshman, won Pac-12 Freshman of the Year with 9.0 sacks and 14.0 tackles for loss, and looked like the class's defining defensive player before anyone had watched a snap of Aidan Hutchinson's senior season.
The junior year complicated it. An ankle injury in the opener against Fresno State cost him time, he finished with 7.0 sacks and 12.0 tackles for loss in 11 games, and Oregon's defense underachieved around him. The tape still showed the get-off and 33 1/8-inch arms, and he tested well at the combine with a 4.58 forty and 27 bench reps at 6-4, 254 pounds. But the flashes came in bursts rather than four-quarter dominance, and some evaluators questioned whether football sat at the center of a player with a public brand and business interests.
By April the board had reordered around him. Hutchinson and Travon Walker climbed past him, and the fall stopped at No. 5 with the Giants, who held two top-seven picks and took the edge rusher with the best first step in the class.
- 01
Explosive get-off
His first step off the snap forces tackles to open their hips early, which is the engine behind both his speed rush and his inside counter.
- 02
Freshman production
Nine sacks and 14 tackles for loss as a true freshman in the Pac-12 is rare evidence of readiness at a position that usually takes years.
- 03
Length and hand strength
Thirty-three-inch arms and a strong long-arm let him create separation and shed rather than staying attached to a block.
- 04
Backside disruption
Thirty-five and a half career tackles for loss came largely from chasing runs down the line and beating blocks away from the play.
- 05
Power conversion
He rolls his hips into contact well enough to walk a pass set back into the pocket, giving him a second way to win when speed fails.
- 01
Inconsistent motor
The dominant reps arrive in bursts rather than every snap, and there are series where he disappears against average competition.
- 02
Limited counter package
When the first move is matched he lacks a reliable second act, and pad level rises as he tries to force the issue late.
- 03
Junior-year injury
An ankle problem in the 2021 opener cost him games and blunted a season that was supposed to lock in the No. 1 overall pick.
- 04
Off-field questions
Clubs asked whether his business ventures and public profile signaled a player whose priorities sat outside of football.
Relative Athletic Score (Kent Lee Platte) benchmarks combine/pro-day numbers against every measured prospect at the position since 1987. 10.00 is elite; 5.00 is average.
— — — positional median (p50)
- 40 yd
- 4.58sp50
- Vertical
- —in
- Broad jump
- —in
- Three-cone
- —s
- Shuttle
- —s
- Bench
- 27repp50
| Yr | Team | G | Tkl | Sk | Int | PD | FF |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | Oregon | 14 | 35 | 9 | 0 | 3 | 1 |
| 2020 | Oregon | 7 | 38 | 3 | 0 | 3 | 0 |
| 2021 | Oregon | 11 | 49 | 7 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| Career | — | 32 | 122 | 19 | 0 | 7 | 3 |
2020 and 2021 verified line by line against cfbstats.com (its archives do not reach 2019 for this player); 2019 taken from published season totals. Career tackles (122), tackles for loss (35.5) and sacks (19.0) reconcile exactly across the three seasons. Some aggregators list slightly different 2020-21 tackle-for-loss splits; the cfbstats figures are used here.
A dash means the figure is not published by a source we trust — never a zero we invented.
Athletic starting edge who produces useful sack totals in a rotation but is not the every-down problem a defense builds around.
Explosive edge whose get-off and length turn into consistent double-digit sack seasons once the rush plan matures.
Top-five athletic rusher whose effort and consistency questions follow him and cap him as a role player.
Everything above is the pre-draft evaluation. This section is what actually happened — updated year over year.
Thibodeaux has been a starting defensive end for the New York Giants for two seasons. He has shown improvement in his pass-rushing ability and run defense.
The Giants got a solid starter and never got the star. Thibodeaux missed three games as a rookie with a knee sprain and finished with 4.0 sacks, then broke through in 2023 with 11.5 sacks, 48 tackles and three forced fumbles across all 17 games — the season that suggested the arc was pointing where New York hoped. It has not gone back up since. A wrist injury cost him five games in 2024 and he finished with 5.5 sacks, then 2025 brought just 2.5 sacks in 10 games, a season interrupted again and spent partly rotating rather than starting.
The clearest verdict came from the front office itself: after picking up his fifth-year option in April 2025, the Giants used the No. 3 overall pick that same night on Abdul Carter, another premium edge. Through four seasons Thibodeaux has 23.5 sacks in 53 games — real production, but the profile of a good rotational starter rather than the cornerstone a top-five pick is supposed to be. Hutchinson, taken three spots earlier, has nearly double the sacks. The traits were as advertised; the every-snap consistency scouts flagged never fully arrived.
Data note: Imported from Wikipedia 2022 NFL draft player selections table.