Andrew Thomas has spent enough time proving himself to know he doesn’t need much help from the prediction crowd. Still, one early forecast has the Giants left tackle staring at a brutal Week 2 assignment that feels more like a shot at his résumé than a real football take.
The scenario comes from Jarrett Bailey’s list of 61 predictions for the upcoming season, and it paints a rough night for New York’s offense on Monday Night Football. In the projection, a newly traded Myles Garrett arrives in Los Angeles and immediately starts wrecking games for the Rams.
“On the Week 2 edition of Monday NightFootball, the Rams host the Giants in what ends up being the second consecutive colossal Myles Garrett performance to begin his tenure as a Ram. The two-time Defensive Player of the Year sacks Jaxson Dart three times and earns a half sack on another takedown.”
That kind of line is exactly why Thomas matters so much.
Depending on how you want to frame it, he either has the privilege or the burden of protecting franchise quarterback hopeful Jaxson Dart’s blind side. For Thomas, though, it’s the same job he’s been doing for years: handle the league’s best edge threats and keep the pocket from collapsing.
And Garrett is as nasty a test as there is. He just finished last season with 23.0 sacks, breaking Michael Strahan’s single-season record, and now he’s moving from Cleveland to a Los Angeles Rams roster that is loaded with talent, especially up front. Even with defensive coordinator Chris Shula likely moving Garrett around, the matchup still comes back to the same basic question: can Thomas hold up against one of the most dominant pass-rushers in football?
The answer, based on what Thomas has already shown, is yes.
He missed the first four games last season, but the 13 games he did play were the best of his six-year career. He was one of the biggest Pro Bowl and All-Pro snubs around, and his final stretch on the field backed that up. When Giants fans last saw him, he posted a 90.3 overall grade from Pro Football Focus, which ranked fourth out of 89 players, along with an 87.2 pass-blocking grade that checked in third.
He’s also already handled Garrett better than most. In two previous matchups, Thomas limited him to just 0.5 sacks.
So no, the idea of Garrett rolling through Thomas and Dart for 3.5 sacks doesn’t line up with what Thomas has actually done. If he’s healthy, the Giants’ left tackle should be ready for the challenge, even while managing lingering foot and shoulder issues through training camp.
Thomas doesn’t need the hype machine to validate him. He just needs the snap count.
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