Kayvon Thibodeaux Expected to Command Day Two Return in Potential Giants Exit

The New York Giants are one of the teams other NFL clubs believe has the potential to be a considerable mover and shaker before and during the 2026 draft, and the more people you talk to, the more likely it seems that former top-five pick Kayvon Thibodeaux is headed elsewhere.

Much of the chatter about the Giants is focused on their best player, defensive tackle Dexter Lawrence and his recent trade request, for obvious reasons. 

But Thibodeaux has been the center of trade rumours for years and there is a strong expectation among rival general managers that he will be gone by the second day of the NFL draft two weeks from now… If not sooner.

What’s Fair Trade Compensation For Thibodeaux?

While Lawrence, if he’s moved at all, will require massive trade compensation, multiple league sources indicated the Giants are much more willing sellers on Thibodeaux and are very high on potential replacements at edge rusher throughout the draft (not just the first round). 

Should they land, say, Ohio State’s versatile linebacker Sonny Styles with their fifth-overall pick, he is someone who can be moved around to hunt pass-rushing match-ups off the edge in sub packages, and there are day-two pass rushers as well who could likely at least equal the 13 tackles and 2.5 sacks Thibodeaux mustered last season.

“I think Thibodeaux is gone if they can get a third for him,” said one longtime NFL executive who has a strong feel for that ownership group and has been involved in major transactions involving the Giants in the past. 

“That’s a guess, but it’s a deep edge class… If I were the Giants in Year One of a new program I would be tempted to move both players (Lawrence and Thibodeaux) in separate deals for a 1 (or the equivalent of a first-round pick on the trade chart), two threes and a useful player or two and save roughly $28M in cap room this year and next year and about $35M and $21M in cash.”

The Giants may not be willing to embrace that much change to a front seven that was supposed to be the strength of the franchise. But some change appears inevitable now and several personnel executives who have a very strong feel for how new Giants coach John Harbaugh thinks believe that he’ll be keen to end the years of speculation about Thibodeaux’s future in New York and move on from a player who couldn’t find a lasting fit with the prior regime, especially given the way this draft class lines up.

“If he likes what’s still on the board after Day Two (round three), maybe he just takes a four (fourth-round pick),” one exec said. 

“He’s not the guy who took Thibodeaux at five, remember.”