Defensive players of the week
Kayvon Thibodeaux, edge-rusher, New York Giants. Such a strange, strange game. But Thibodeaux had his best game in the NFL: nine tackles, three sacks, a forced fumble. His two sacks, for losses of 15 and 10 yards, on what should have been the Jets’ final drive of a loss, were precisely the plays the Giants drafted him to make. A shame for the Giants that they fielded an offense incapable of playing football Sunday.
The Jets offensive line is going to get thier QB hurt badly.
Kayvan also had the offsides that stopped the clock and allowed the Jets to tie the game. He was all over Wilson though, who for some reason though the could out run Tdibs. Easily the worst game I’ve ever watched……and I haven’t missed a lions game since 1993 lol.
I’ll take that along with a 1 off sides penalty any day of the week. You had too dig pretty deep to turn this into a negative against the kid.
You obviously missed this classic that pretty much led to Darryl Rogers being fired and Wayne Fontes taking over:
The penalty was a MASSIVE mistake. You can’t have anything that stops the clock. If he didn’t jump off sides the games essentially over.
I think there were 23 or 24 punts in the game. Jets punter was killing it.
He’s always been a ridiculously gifted pass rusher. Aiden’s a much more complete player though.
I love Hutchinson but Trayvon’s a better pure pass rusher imo. And I agree Hutch is a more complete player.
Not really seeing anything that blows me away here. About the only thing I really notice is the effort level is unusually high for Thibs.
Thibodeaux is a better, faster athlete than Hutch. There is a reason he was in consideration for #1 or #2 overall, and went as high as he did, even though he had an injury.
Honestly, if it wasn’t for his injury, he could easily be wearing a Lions uniform.
That said, he reminds me of a faster version of Cliff Avril. Can look elite at times against average tackles. But, can get dominated for long stretches as well, because of his smaller frame.
He’s just a different style of end than Hutch. Both nice players. It was more a choice of style for Brad and Dan … with slightly higher floor for Hutch, and maybe slightly lower ceiling.
Kayvon doesn’t have a smaller frame. He gets beat up at times because of his effort level. KT is every bit of 6’-4" and plays in the 260-265 range. He is a hair shorter and lighter than Chase Young. Any and all draft profiles that compared him to Von Miller were done by people who had no clue what they were talking about.
Kavyon still getting overrated here. Faster than Hutch, sure, lots of guys are faster than Hutch. Hutch has average top speed at best, its his agility that is elite. Travon Walker was the fast guy, not Thibs. Thibs still doesn’t have much in the way of moves from watching that vid. He beat that tackle wide the same move he used in college. Some of the sacks were the result of high effort. Is that just the bright lights or has his effort really improved?
He’s smaller than Hutch … which are the two players I was referencing.
KT is a very talented pass rusher. He’s a natural at it. Like James Houston he gets the art form of it. You can find several interviews in which he discusses sequencing his moves throughout the game to set up tackles, etc. I’m not even interested in making this a Hutch vs. KT thing. Hutch is our guy and IMO he’s a better player and he’s definitely a significantly better fit.
But KT is a very talented pass rusher. It won’t shock me if he ends up being a consistent 13-16 sack guy for a half decade plus.
I think KT is talented just not up to the hype level. He’s nowhere near Dwight Freeney talented. But sure he could put up double digit sacks if primarily used as a pass rusher. Hutch should be doing that too, I think Hutch is suffering this year from the falloff of the rest of the D-line. We had Houston last year for the 2nd half. And Cominsky was much better. For some reason AG is falling in love with guys who are killing our pass rush like Charles Harris and Benito.
Charles was benched last week. Benito is only in there to stuff the run. He always comes off the field in passing situations.
We do miss Houston flying off the edge on 3rd downs.
Paschal always being hurt doesn’t help either. Cominsky was making plays consistently last year. Haven’t seen much of that this year.
Alim has been playing well. The Okwara brothers aint offering much either.
We also have a new Dline coach this year.
We 100% needed Houston to go along with Hutch for our pass rush imo. Harris and the rest of the edge guys don’t have it.
Well outside of length Dwight Freeney is one of the most naturally talented pass rushers that ever lived so there’s no shame about falling short of that.
I think KT can be a Danielle Hunter level player
He is shorter than Hutch, as is nearly every DE in the entire league. Thibs has longer arms. Their playing weight is within a few pounds of eachother.
He is talented enough to do it, but will he WANT it bad enough to actually achieve it? That’s the rub with KT. It was never the talent. Even the draft profiles that cited that he was “a bit stiff” didn’t take into account how big he is. That’s why he appears a bit stiff at times, because he’s not a small flame thrower kind of a guy.