Kayvon Thibodeaux has been in trade conversations for well over a year, but the Giants have kept him around. That patience has come with a simple logic: when New York’s edge group is healthy, the former top-10 pick is no longer locked in as an every-down fixture, yet Joe Schoen has treated the position as a team strength and resisted moving him for draft capital.
That stance may be nearing a crossroads. Thibodeaux is playing on his fifth-year option, and his play this season hasn’t made a contract extension feel like a necessity.
If a team comes calling with a mid-round pick, the Giants probably shouldn’t overthink it. The alternative is watching him walk away for nothing.
What makes that possibility more manageable now is Trace Ford. The backup edge rusher is giving New York a reason to believe it can survive a Thibodeaux trade, at least in the short term, if Ford keeps producing the way he has.
The contrast between the two is striking. Thibodeaux arrived as the fifth overall pick.
Ford came in undrafted. Thibodeaux has 57 NFL starts.
Ford has none.
Ford is not built to be a straight swap for Thibodeaux, and nobody should pretend otherwise. Even with Thibodeaux underwhelming so far this season, he still carries a far higher ceiling than a player who was on the practice squad just a couple of weeks ago.
Still, the Giants’ real obstacle to dealing Thibodeaux has been depth, not belief in his long-term value. Ford’s Week 6 performance against the New Orleans Saints gave them something useful to think about. On only 21 snaps, he logged two run stuffs and spent the game flashing in the backfield whenever he was on the field.
That wasn’t a one-off either. Ford carried over the same kind of activity he showed in preseason, when he posted eight pressures, a sack, and eight run stops in three games.
The one catch is the Giants are already thin on the edge without Brian Burns. A Thibodeaux trade would leave Ford and Abdul Carter as the only healthy edge rushers, which would almost certainly push New York to add another body. But the larger point remains unchanged: Thibodeaux hasn’t done enough this season to justify the fear of moving him.
If the Giants decide to send him to the highest bidder before the deadline, Ford may at least give them a chance to find out what they really have.
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