Kayvon Thibodeaux makes ‘special’ return home for first NFL game in L.A.
· Yahoo Sports
LOS ANGELES — Kayvon Thibodeaux got to play his first NFL game in his home city on Monday night when his Giants took on the L.A. Rams.
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It’s been a long time coming for the South Central Los Angeles product, who waited until his fifth NFL season to suit up at home as a pro.
“Playing in L.A. is super special,” Thibodeaux, 25, said before making the cross-country flight. “Growing up in the city of L.A. and being a kid who dreamed about playing in the NFL, and now after five years of being in the NFL being able to get back to the West and play a game, it’s super special.”
SoFi Stadium, which rests in Inglewood, Calif., is only 6.5 miles south of Susan Miller Dorsey Senior High School, where Thibodeaux played two years before transferring north to the Oaks Christian School in Westlake Village.
That meant the ticket requests for Monday night were through the roof, and there promised to be a strong cheering section for the Giants’ No. 5 in the stands.
“I just bought about 20 tickets,” Thibodeaux said Friday. “And I know a lot of family already got tickets. So it’ll be maybe around 30 or 40 people.”
The Giants’ decision to fly out on Saturday, two days prior to the game, also gave Thibodeaux a chance to spend some extra time with his loved ones.
“It’ll be chill,” he said of their plans. “We’ll probably just have a get-together, have my aunt and grandma cook some food and just hang out.”
He looked forward to his favorite home-cooking.
“My mom makes some crazy tacos,” Thibodeaux said. “Being from LA, it’s this huge kind Spanish influence. So she makes some steak tacos I’m excited for.”
It’s good timing for Thibodeaux to return home and ground himself, since he’s still searching for a home in John Harbaugh’s new Giants defense.
Thibodeaux played only 27 snaps, or 47% of the Giants’ defensive snaps, in their Week 1 win over the Dallas Cowboys. And defensive coordinator Dennard Wilson played him in seven different positions, moving him all over the defensive front from left to right.
Thibodeaux’s role has shifted dramatically.
Wilson showed Thibodeaux at inside linebacker briefly during one spring practice. Thibodeaux has logged plenty of one-on-one pass rush snaps at defensive tackle on the inside, even though his true position is on the edge.
Essentially, Abdul Carter (91% of Week 1 snaps) is now entrenched on the edge opposite Brian Burns, as Thibodeaux once was. And Thibodeaux is now in the Swiss Army knife that the Giants used Carter in as a rookie.
Thibodeaux accepts his new and is executing it to the best of his ability.
“I gotta show up on the stat sheet and stop the run,” he said of the need to produce. He said stopping the run is where it all starts, and that’s his priority every play.
Thibodeaux’s future as a Giant even hangs in the balance, since he’s playing on a fifth-year option in the final year of his rookie contract.
His name has frequently come up in trade rumors, and his reduced role reinforces that there are a couple avenues the Giants could go with their pass rusher:
He could earn a new contract in New York, or he could be playing somewhere else next season — or even at the midseason trade deadline, depending on how this all shakes out.
Not that Thibodeaux is focused there.
In fact, despite his limited snaps in Week 1, his pressure on Dak Prescott is what forced the Cowboys quarterback’s interception to safety Jevon Holland. And that sequence helped seal the entire game.
Thibodeaux wasn’t about to pat himself on the back for that QB hit. After all, the entire Giants pass rush was still looking for its first sack of the season entering Week 2.
“I’ve been chasing people down my whole life,” Thibodeaux said. “So no, I don’t give myself credit for that.”
But a return home might have been exactly what Thibodeaux needed to thrive in this new role and continue paving the way to wherever his next home happens to be.
O-LINE HAS ‘MAFIA MINDSET’
Rookie right guard Francis “Sisi” Mauigoa finished a couple of the offense’s plays far downfield in their season opener against Dallas. The entire line played physically and through the whistle. Mauigoa even accidentally contacted Jaxson Dart and Cam Skattebo at the end of plays, he was so enthusiastic about finishing.
Offensive line coach Mike Bloomgren smiled and said that’s exactly what the linemen and staff have discussed about how to establish the mentality and play style they’re looking for.
“We talk all the time about convoy. We’ve talked in the offensive line room about having a Mafia mindset, and that is making sure we finish for each other,” Bloomgren said. “When you talk to guys that used to be in the Mafia and are out now, I guess, supposedly the thing they always miss is the camaraderie. They miss the locker room type feel.
“And we’ve got that,” Bloomgren said. “And they miss the love for each other. We’ve got that love for each other. So we’re gonna finish every play for each other.”