Andrew Thomas looked like the Giants’ safety net again in West Virginia, and that matters more than anything else coming out of camp.
By the time the team wrapped its Greenbrier stretch on Aug. 8, Thomas was taking a full workload of one-on-one snaps against Abdul Carter and finished the final practice there without any limitation. Head coach John Harbaugh said the group “improved tremendously” over the opening portion of camp, and Thomas’ presence at left tackle was the clearest sign of that progress.
That’s the job that keeps everything else from wobbling. Jaxson Dart is moving into year two with a style that invites contact, and the tackle protecting his blindside is coming off a season that looked a lot like peak Andrew Thomas.
In 2025, Thomas posted a 90.3 overall PFF grade, which ranked fourth among 89 qualified offensive tackles and matched the career best he set in his 2022 All-Pro season, according to his PFF profile. He gave up just one sack and 13 pressures over 448 pass-blocking snaps, while his 98.3 pass-blocking efficiency was the best of his career. He also put together an 84.6 run-blocking grade, another personal high, giving the Giants a rare tackle who graded elite in both phases.
What makes that season even more impressive is where it came from. Thomas was coming back from the Lisfranc surgery that cut short his 2024 campaign, and there were real questions about whether that kind of injury would blunt the movement that makes him special.
Instead, he answered them over a full, healthy 2025. The Giants brought him along carefully early in camp this summer, then let him roll in those closing West Virginia practices, where the tape reportedly looked like nothing had changed.
The matchup with Carter is the best proof of where Thomas stands. Carter logged a 20.7% pass-rush win rate as a rookie, good for fifth among qualified edge rushers and right between Will Anderson Jr. and Myles Garrett, per PFF.
The No. 3 overall pick finished with 43 tackles, 4.0 sacks and a rookie-best 23 quarterback hits, earning a spot on the PFWA All-Rookie team. Harbaugh said Carter spent the summer chasing a Defensive Player of the Year goal and just needs to sharpen his consistency “down after down.”
Those are exactly the kinds of snaps Thomas has been handling at Greenbrier, where Giants.com described the pair as “making each other better.” That’s not just camp fluff.
If a left tackle can deal with a rusher like Carter in practice, he’s set up to survive most of what the NFC East can throw at him once the games count. Thomas has already passed that daily test.
The Giants’ financial commitment says the same thing. Thomas is under contract through 2029 on the five-year, $117.5 million extension he signed in 2023, with $67 million guaranteed at signing, then a record for an offensive lineman. His 2026 cap hit is about $13 million after a spring restructure that turned $14.685 million of base salary into a signing bonus and opened up more than $11 million in space, per Over The Cap.
That’s the kind of money teams only spend when they view a player as core infrastructure. The Giants clearly do. And with Malik Nabers still rehabbing a knee, the interior line still unsettled after Dexter Lawrence’s departure reshaped the trenches, and Dart learning a second scheme in as many years, Thomas is the one piece that steadies the whole operation.
A healthy, All-Pro-caliber Thomas changes the equation for this offense. He was that player again in West Virginia, and for the Giants, that was the biggest takeaway from The Greenbrier.
In Other News...
Jevon Holland Is Giving Giants Fans A Tough New Debate
Jevon Hollands first season with the Giants did not match the kind of impact the team hoped for when it added him to the secondary, and Pro Football Focuss latest rankings reflected that disappointment. He was left off PFFs list of the leagues top 32 safeties after landing at No. 73 among qualified players last year, a blunt reminder that the move to New York has not yet produced the sort of weekly difference-maker the Giants envisioned.
Still, Holland is under contract through 2027, which keeps his name right in the middle of the Giants longer-term defensive conversation. With the roster already dealing with the fallout from recent trades and injuries, the safety spot is one more area where the team needs clarity, and Hollands next stretch could go a long way toward determining whether he is part of the fix or part of the debate. [Read more 🡒]
Giants Are Taking A Risk With Malik Nabers At The Worst Time
Malik Nabers has been easing back into Giants training camp as he recovers from a knee injury, and his availability has already become one of the early talking points around the team. He has been limited in practice, but New York has still had him working without the kind of obvious restrictions that usually signal a player is being handled with extra caution, even as the club has spent part of the summer trying to shore up a receiver room thinned by depth concerns.
That balancing act matters more with Week 1 against the Cowboys approaching, because the Giants are clearly counting on Nabers to be part of the plan right away. At the same time, every practice rep carries a little more weight when a key receiver is coming off an injury, and New York has to decide how much exposure is worth it before the season starts to count. [Read more 🡒]
Deonte Banks Finally Gave Giants Fans A Reason To Believe
Deonte Banks gave the Giants something they have been waiting to see more of during their final practice in West Virginia, when the second-year cornerback flashed the kind of playmaking that can change the mood around a defensive backfield. He picked off a ball in the end zone and later broke up a pass near the pylon, two moments that stood out because they came at the exact spots where corners are expected to hold up under pressure.
Banks still has work to do, and one strong practice does not wipe away the concerns that have followed him. But with the preseason opener against Minnesota approaching, the Giants need him building confidence and stacking days like this one, because progress at cornerback is less about one highlight and more about whether it starts to look repeatable. [Read more 🡒]