Caleb Harris
New York Giants defensive end Kayvon Thibodeaux has a big goal for the 2024 season. Well, really for every season. He wants to become the NFL all-time sack leader in a single season, toppling the mark of a former Giants legend.
“Let’s just get started, if you’re wondering, I’ll put it on record – so don’t ask,” Thibodeaux said, perhaps jokingly, via NJ.com. “Every year I’m here, I look for Michael Strahan’s record.”
Thibodeaux elaborated on the goal, noting that he will have a chance to rush the passer more often in 2024 than Strahan did when he set the record in 2001.
“Now, being here, it’s as if he [Strahan] I didn’t get as many quick opportunities as I’m going to get,” Thibodeaux said. “The game didn’t have as many passes as before. I have an opportunity that people would like to have. It’s only right if I give people what they want. I honor myself by putting everything on the line, trying to be the best.”
Jokingly or seriously, Thibodeaux has a long way to go to catch up to Strahan — even in a league where passes are considerably more common. He recorded just four sacks in his first season, but that jumped to 11.5 last year. Even that two-year total leaves him seven shy of Strahan and TJ Watt’s record. But Thibodeaux’s 11.5 sacks in 2023 may also overstate how effective he was at rushing the passer.
Those 11.5 sacks tied Thibodeaux with Denico Autry and Aidan Hutchinson for 12th in the NFL, but his 43 total pressures were checked in for just 67th in the league, tied with a quarter of all interior linemen in Fletcher Cox, Osa Odighizuwa, Jarran Reed and Dre’Monte Jones. Every play in the top 15 in sacks except one had a pressure rate at least 1.5 times higher than Thibodeaux’s 8.6% mark, which ranked 141st out of 216 players who rushed the passer at least 150. times last season, via Tru Media.
Thibodeaux was able to record so many sacks because of his astronomical sack-to-pressure ratio of 26.7%, which nearly doubled the league average of 13.5% and ranked eighth among the same group of players. He dropped 10% as a rookie, ranking 142nd out of 221 players.
Unless you think Thibodeaux really is twice as good as, say, Micah Parsons or Javon Hargrave or Chris Jones at turning pressure into sacks, he’ll need to be around the quarterback a lot more often in 2024 to match the team’s sack total. last season, let’s just get to Strahan and Watt alone.
It may be even more difficult because Thibodeaux now has a teammate who can simply get to the quarterback before him; Brian Burns’ average sack time last season was almost 0.7 seconds faster than Thibodeaux’s — which is an eternity in a league where most defenders try to hand the ball off within 2.5 seconds of the snap. Burns’ presence should provide Thibodeaux with better matchups, but regardless, he will need to step up his game if he wants to come close to achieving his goals.
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