Kayvon Thibodeaux speaks on the mixed reactions received from fans:

[DragonSoul]

https://twitter.com/SNYGiants/status/1704244585038336102

Bad move on his part from pr/fans' perspective, but he should know fans are fickle & not all feel that way.

He had pressures and made some plays not on the stat sheet, but you need a thicker skin. Cause you haven't seen anything yet...

I get it, but he should know better. Pat Hanlon did a bad job letting the youngster know how to handle the media/fans...

Personally, I could care less, I generally give all players several years to grow into their own, unless it is clearly obvious.

[y_so_blu]

Play better football, dude.

[kartanoman]

Not sure what he's complaining about. Giants fans crowded State Farm Stadium and took the home crowd advantage away from the Cardinals.

Maybe he should have taken a closer look at Section 131.

Peace!

[umassgrad]

Dear KT, GFY

[DaveBrown74]

And Gen Z wonders why they get a bad rap.

[Ed Vette]

He's a self-absorbed jackass narcissist.

[umassgrad]

The sackless wonder

[Ed Vette]

He even took a shot at Wink. Saying he's being held back.

I can understand if Daboll sits him to start the game.

[Rambo89]

Strahan needs to sit him down and explain how things work in NY and the NFL.  This isn't Oregon.

[MightyGiants]

I think KT is making the mistake of listening to the noise, which is a terrible idea if you play for the NY Giants.  Best to tune the noise out.


Q: You're asked to drop in coverage more in this defense than edge rushers are in other defenses, and everyone judges you by sacks. How have you accepted that? How do you feel about that?

A: I mean, there are a lot of social media GMs. There are a lot of people who want the game and want to coach, and they want to create narratives. But as long as I stick to the game plan, and my coaches and my team are happy with what I'm able to do, whether it be drop back, whether it be hold the edge, whatever it may be – I'm just happy to contribute.


Q: (Defensive lineman) Leo(nard Williams) said that as a group, you have to stop worrying about these numbers, the sacks, the takeaways, and just do your job, because that's something people are asking about. How important is it to not listen to that?

A: The thing is, every fan just wants to be a part of a winning team, right? So even early in that game, our own fans are booing us. They're giving up on us. And then as soon as we start to win, now, everybody's cheering and everybody's excited. Everybody wants to get a jersey signed and this and that. It's a tough situation, but when you start to realize that the only people that matter are the people in the room and the only people who are really here for us, is us. As long as we continue to focus on that and continue to control the narrative and keep pushing forward, we'll be alright.

[MightyGiants]

for those that are interested, KT talked about his game on Sunday


Q: Yeah...

A: So, if you watch the game, they—it's all scheme. Once (outside linebacker) Azeez (Ojulari) kind of got hurt, you understand that you're kind of left in a situation of being on the back side. So, I was on the backside a lot of those plays. Granted, they were getting the ball out quick and once you kind of go down in a football game, they don't really run plays. They're not trying to win the game with the plays that they're running, right? So, it's a lot of just short runs. A lot of other guys were making plays, so for me, it's really not about the stat line, especially in the game of football. I think football is probably the only sport where you can contribute to a game without having any stats. So, when you go back and watch that tape, a lot of the balls were ran to the other side. Even with them doing that, towards the end of the game, when they did start to run my way, it was about setting the edge. It was about kind of doing my part. I know teammates before previously have talked about just being able to handle your job. My main job is to set the edge and to make the runs go back inside so that my linebackers and other players can fill gaps. So, just being able to contribute to a win felt pretty good.

[MightyGiants]

Clearly Neal had a much better (but not entirely dissimilar) answer to the question about all the criticism


Q: What's your mindset, obviously the Dallas game was a lot of criticism and all that stuff. How do you respond, how do you feel going into this game after having that Arizona game under your belt?

A: Just flush it, man. Next page. Criticism is what comes along with playing this sport, you know what I'm saying? I'm not doing it for the critics, I am doing it for myself, my teammates, my family, the ones that believe in me. I am going to go out there and put together the best performance that's possible for my teammates.

[zephirus]

It's not uncommon for a football player to gravitate towards an "us vs. them" mentality, even if the "them" is your own fans.  He's not wrong, the only people that are going to fix this are the people around him.  Probably not the smartest idea to say that out loud but I don't think the concept is novel, or exclusive to him (or Gen Z??? Grow up). 

We're 2 games into the season.  The Giants' story or Kayvon's story are far from finished.  Why don't we read past the opening chapter.

[MightyGiants]

It's not uncommon for a football player to gravitate towards an "us vs. them" mentality, even if the "them" is your own fans.  He's not wrong, the only people that are going to fix this are the people around him.  Probably not the smartest idea to say that out loud but I don't think the concept is novel, or exclusive to him (or Gen Z??? Grow up). 

We're 2 games into the season.  The Giants' story or Kayvon's story are far from finished.  Why don't we read past the opening chapter.

Most of these young men went through HS and college pretty much getting nothing but praise and appreciation.  Then they come to NY Giants, which is a tough media and fan market.  Suddenly for the first time in their lives, they are being heckled by fans, seeing all sorts of nasty crap on social media (there was a story last week about a Lions RB receiving racist DMs on Twitter).  The reporters covering the team will also join in (but to a lesser degree).

That is a tough thing for these young men to wrap their heads around.  As KT said, imagine one minute you have fans asking for autographs, and then next they are yelling at them, "You suck!" 

Frankly, I can't blame players for having little interest in playing for people putting them down.  Would you?

[JT39]

I think people should listen to what he is saying. Look at what he highlighted

- played scheme Wink told him
- getting doubled early
- dobbs throwing quickly
- being used in coverage a lot
- run game for Arizona was going away from him
- doing what coaches tell him

He is clearly frustrated that he is not being asked to go after the QB. But he's doing his job. Could he be playing better? Sure. But all of answers were straight up and honest - which I actually find refreshing. Not the same boring "oh we got to play better, you got to forget about..."

He's like 22 who's doing something different. And I'd like to remind people - getting after the QB is much different based on the score. We have been ahead for a whopping 19 seconds this year.