The New York Giants entered Week 6 already short on edge-rush help. Now Abdul Carter’s calf injury has turned the group’s margin for error into a much smaller one.
Carter is questionable for the Giants’ upcoming game against the New Orleans Saints, and he was listed as a nonparticipant in practice along with Jermaine Eluemunor. Even if Carter is active, the missed work makes it hard to assume he’ll be at full strength when the Giants try to protect a 3-1-1 start against a Saints team sitting at 1-4.
That matters because Carter has been one of the Giants’ most productive pass rushers through five games. He leads the team with 31 pass rush wins and is tied for first among edge defenders with a 36 percent pass rush win rate. If he is limited or unavailable, the burden on the rest of the group rises immediately.
That is where Kayvon Thibodeaux comes back into focus.
John Harbaugh backed Thibodeaux, saying he has been better than his uninspiring box score suggests. But the box score is still hard to ignore: Thibodeaux has no sacks through five games, has recorded six tackles and one quarterback hit, and is still searching for his first tackle for loss.
The playing time has been there. Thibodeaux has logged 216 defensive snaps, about 70.1 percent of the Giants’ total over the first five games, and he played 87.1 percent of the defensive snaps this past weekend. The production has not followed. Against Washington, he managed only one stop, though he did earn a 78.8 run defense grade from Focus, second only to linebacker Arvell Reese.
That split — heavy usage, modest results — is what makes Carter’s status so important. The Giants are already without Brian Burns, and Carter’s uncertain availability leaves Thibodeaux as one of the clearest remaining answers on the edge. If Carter can’t go, or can’t be at full speed, the Giants will need more from Thibodeaux than they have gotten so far.
A separate assessment put the pressure even more bluntly, saying Thibodeaux has little time left to salvage his Giants career. With Carter on the injury report and the Saints next on the schedule, the question is no longer abstract. It is whether the Giants’ edge group can hold up while the player they have defended publicly is asked to do more, and do it now.