Giants Expected to Pick Up Kayvon Thibodeaux’s Fifth-Year Option

The New York Giants are facing a critical offseason filled with multiple notable challenges regarding personnel. Among these pivotal choices is whether to exercise the fifth-year options on the contracts of their 2022 first-round draft picks: outside linebacker Kayvon Thibodeaux and offensive tackle Evan Neal.

The Giants are likely to pass on Neal’s option, as his performance has been underwhelming compared to expectations. Given that he was selected as a high draft pick, his struggles have raised eyebrows regarding the current management's ability to not only spot talent but also develop it. His inconsistency has been a significant disappointment for the organization, which is now left evaluating his future role without a steady replacement in mind.

On the other hand, the decision regarding Thibodeaux is expected to lean toward exercising his option. Thibodeaux’s career thus far has been a sequence of fluctuating emotions. His rookie season saw him register only four sacks, a figure that belied his true impact on the field, as advanced metrics indicated he was a more disruptive force than the traditional sack total would suggest. In his second season, he made a notable leap, posting 11.5 sacks. However, analysis via advanced metrics revealed that his impressive sack total may have been somewhat inflated, complicating the perception of his effectiveness.

In the current season, Thibodeaux managed 5.5 sacks in just 12 games, and once again, advanced metrics painted a more favorable picture of his contributions—ranking him 16th in pass rush win rate among his peers. Yet, despite these promising underlying statistics, Thibodeaux has not yet made the kind of significant impact the Giants anticipated when they selected him fifth overall in the 2022 NFL Draft.

As the Giants prepare to make a decision on Thibodeaux’s option, which would amount to $16.1 million for the 2026 season, it is worth noting that I believe the correct decisions are to decline Neal’s option and to exercise Thibodeaux’s. Neal has shown next to nothing as a professional thus far in his career; whether that is a fault of his own or the Giants' inability to develop offensive linemen is up for debate. Regardless, the results are the results, and they haven’t been pretty. Kayvon, on the other hand, has shown flashes of being a Pro Bowl-caliber edge rusher, as well as demonstrating signs of improvement from year to year. I think at this point in time it would be foolish for New York to write off one of its young defensive pieces too early, especially at such a premium position. Not to mention the recent trend of former Giants who have left and significantly improved on other teams, such as Xavier McKinney and Saquon Barkley, to name a few. The Giants do not have a deep roster, and for them not to be looking to extend young homegrown talent is a partial admission by the front office that things went awry during their first year on the job, and that is not something that high-level management likes to do.