Oregon edge rusher Kayvon Thibodeaux wore a Dolce & Gabbana suit on Thursday night and said he manifested his fate at the No. 5 overall pick:
The 2022 NFL Draft’s most controversial and dynamic personality went to the Giants and the Big Apple.
The organization of Lawrence Taylor and Michael Strahan landed a loud and proud pass rusher on the Las Vegas strip. And Thibodeaux said he’s perfect for New York.
“Because I’m hungry,” he said on a conference call. “I’m competitive. I’m hungry. And I feel like New York is the pinnacle of a dog eat dog world.”
Thibodeaux, 21, had plenty of critics in the pre-draft process. One AFC coach told the News recently that he had concerns about whether Thibodeaux would stay focused and play football, adding that he’d be concerned about bringing him to New York.
But the Giants did extensive homework on the Oregon Duck standout for just that reason, and they came away impressed. Thibodeaux even said he counts Strahan as a mentor.
“We really got to know the kid maybe more than any player in this draft,” said GM Joe Schoen, who had dinner with Thibodeaux after his pro day at a Korean barbecue restaurant in Eugene, Ore., this spring.
“I feel like anything that was said about me before this point is history,” Thibodeaux said. “Now at this point we focus on the future.”
“These athletes are changing,” Schoen said. “With the NIL [name, image, likeness] stuff these kids are making all of this money in college. We’ve got to evolve and understand the kids are gonna evolve. But also Kayvon had a serious ankle injury and a lot of people with his draft status and stock could have hung it up. But he worked his way back, practiced and he didn’t necessarily need to do that.”
Thibodeaux, a 6-4, 254-pound specimen, had seven sacks last season and 19 total in college for the Ducks over three seasons.
“Kayvon is quick off the ball,” coach Brian Daboll said. “I think he has a wide variety of pass rush moves, but he can also set an edge for us on our defense. It’s no secret we play multiple schemes with Wink [Martindale] as our defensive coordinator, and we envision Kayvon doing a lot of different things for us.”
Schoen followed that pick up by taking Alabama offensive tackle Evan Neal at No. 7 overall. The GM said the Giants will plug the 6-7, 337-pound mauler in at right tackle, where he made 12 starts in 2020.
“The Giants are going to get a guy that is going to come in every day and work his hardest to be the best that he can be,” Neal said.
Daboll said Neal is a “massive man” with “long arms” who forces pass rushers to take a “long route” to get to the quarterback.”
The Giants need the infusion of talent. In division, the Philadelphia Eagles had a big night, too, drafting Georgia defensive tackle Jordan Davis and trading for Titans wide receiver A.J. Brown.
Thursday night’s first five picks were all defensive players: Georgia defensive end Travon Walker to the Jacksonville Jaguars at No. 1, Michigan edge Aidan Hutchinson to the Detroit Lions at No. 2, LSU corner Derek Stingley Jr. to the Houston Texans at No. 3, and Cincinnati corner Ahmad Gardner – a player the Giants liked – to the Jets at No. 4 before Thibodeaux’s name was called.
So Schoen had all three of the draft’s top tackles on the board when his first pick arrived.
Schoen said “after the pass rusher, after Thibodeaux, there was quite a drop [at that position]. We liked the tackles very similarly. So we thought it was best to let it play out and get the pass rusher first.”
It sounds like Carolina may have picked the Giants’ top tackle when the Panthers took N.C. State’s Ickey Ekwonu at No. 6. When Schoen was asked why he took Neal at 7, he said: “‘Cause Ickey was gone at six, that’s why.”
Regardless, Neal’s resume is impressive. He made 40 starts at three different positions for the best college football program in the country: 13 at left guard in 2019, 12 at right tackle in 2020 and 15 at left tackle in 2021.
It was important that he played right tackle for a full season, where he projects to play for the Giants opposite incumbent left tackle Andrew Thomas.
“It helps when you’re gonna draft a player at 7 and you can see him do what you’re gonna ask him to do,” Schoen said.
The Giants’ GM did acknowledge that some teams had expressed concerns with Neal’s medicals, even though as the News reported, no team had requested a medical recheck. SI.com had reported that some teams were concerned about Neal’s knee and hip.
“On the medical, a lot of times teams share medical grades,” Schoen said, “and I think it was 52% of the league – there was only 8% of the league that had issues with anything with Evan. Circling up with that, I think that was a rumor was out there, but the majority of the teams in the league – He started 40 career games, missed one game because of COVID.
“Before any of that came out, we went through all that,” Schoen added. “They mentioned what some teams had concerns with. Our doctors looked at it. They were fine with everything. His play history backs that up.”
Neal, who hails from Okeechobee, Fla., said he was “kind of shocked” to hear that anyone had concerns about his health. He has never undergone surgery.
“I can’t control the information that leaks out,” he said, “but I played 41 games at Alabama. I didn’t miss a game, I didn’t miss a snap, I only missed one game due to COVID, so that’s your answer there.”
On the trade front, Schoen said he had two deals in place to trade back from No. 7 in case the board fell differently. He didn’t receive any calls for No. 5. The Giants were prepared to move back if their six preferred players were all off the board by seven, but it never came to that.
“It was really a unique draft,” the GM said. “Typically you have an idea of who’s gonna be first and second. There were rumors of who was gonna go third but you didn’t really know. Everyone was speculating. We were prepared for a lot of different scenarios.”
Landing Thibodeaux, a Los Angeles native, adds intrigue coming off an extensive pre-draft evaluation process league-wide that included a grilling from the Giants themselves.
“We had a great interview. They were kinda on me,” Thibodeaux said at the NFL Combine in March. “They were giving me a hard time… [They] bring up what’s gonna happen if I’m not the star, coming in five games in if I don’t have a sack, this is one thing we talked about, and the media’s gonna be down on me, everybody’s gonna be – I’m gonna be in the doghouse. Ya know, ‘how am I gonna hold that?'”
Thibodeaux said he told the Giants: “I’ve been in the media since I was a sophomore in high school. You know? So I’ve been trained for this my whole life.”
Thibodeaux was excited Thursday night. He has a relationship with Strahan and said the Giants legend even spoke on his behalf during the process.
“He literally is one of my mentors,” Thibodeaux said. “He’s been talking to me throughout my process. He came to visit me when I was on my visit with the team. So seeing him out there was really dope. He was giving me wisdom, and even being able to speak on my behalf because we had a different relationship over the years.”
The pass rusher was unconcerned about any scouting reports poking holes in his persona or ability. He was just ecstatic to be coming to New York.
“I say that the Giants believe in me,” he said. “And me and Evan are gonna go to work. And this is one of the greatest moments of my life.”
