Kayvon Thibodeaux is entering his fourth season with the New York Giants, and the young defender knows it’s an important year for him. In his first three years, Thibodeaux has been productive, recording 21 sacks, and 127 tackles with 26 for a loss, but he has to take things to another level in 2025. With the Giants drafting Abdul Carter this offseason, Thibodeaux‘s future with the team is up in the air, so he’s preparing to have a huge season.
His preparation has taken a bit of an unorthodox turn, though. On Monday, the veteran edged defender shared a video of him doing wrestling training. During the video, Thibodeaux explained why he felt going to the mat would be a good thing for him on the field. He started by listing off the mobile quarterbacks the Giants have to face this season, and detailed how he only recorded 5.5 sacks last season.
Thibodeaux believes the low number was a result of not finishing sacks once in the backfield. By doing wrestling training, he’s hoping he will be able to grapple more quarterbacks down to the ground this season.
No excuses. No hiding. Just work. Wrestling through the noise 🥷#Campmode pic.twitter.com/zPP5XLlZu7
— Kayvon Thibodeaux (@kayvont) July 21, 2025
Kayvon Thibodeaux turns to wrestling as he prepares for 2025 season
Fair play to Thibodeaux for identifying a problem and being willing to be uncomfortable and go outside of the box to try and find a solution. The season will ultimately tell how much his wrestling training helped, but there’s reason to believe it will make a positive difference. Football and wrestling has a long history of connections, with many athletes often doing both of the sports.
There are a ton of NFL players, typically offensive and defensive linemen or linebackers, who wrestled in high school, and credit that experience for their football success. Wrestling is good for learning about leverage, moving bodies, and taking people down to the ground— all things a player like Thibodeaux needs to succeed. Hopefully, the training will help him to be a more productive pass rusher in 2025.