The New York Giants will face the Detroit Lions at MetLife Stadium this Sunday and the game will feature two of the top rookie pass rushers in the NFL this year: Aidan Hutchinson and Kayvon Thibodeaux.
Hutchinson was selected second overall by the Lions out of Michigan, after the Jacksonville Jaguars took Georgia defensive end Travon Walker first overall. Thibodeaux, who played at Oregon, was taken fifth by the Giants.
Many players who get passed over by teams in the draft hold a small grudge. Thibodeaux, once considered a candidate for the top pick, doesn’t feel that way.
“I don’t really get motivated because I don’t even think it was the team’s choice to pass over me,” Thibodeaux told reporters on Thursday. “I think it was already written. I think this is where I was supposed to be, and God had this in store. So, this is where I should be. I don’t really hold anything on anybody”
Hutchinson leads all rookies in sacks this season with 5.5. Walker has 2.5 and Thibodeaux, who missed the first two games of the season with a knee injury, has just one.
Asked about his lack of ‘splash’ stats, Thibodeaux intimated performance isn’t always judged by the stat sheet. He is simply concentrating on doing his job as mapped out by the coaches.
“What are we nine, 10 weeks in? I haven’t, through the totality of 10 games, I haven’t received any bad (feedback),” he said. “There’s always plays you clean up. There’s always things you can grow from. But I don’t think I’ve had a bad game. I’ve always been able to, whether it’s a bad play, fight back and kind of make up for it on the back end or just continue to keep being better.”
