The New York Giants have one quarterback sack in three games, 31st in the NFL. Their 1% sack rate and 25.7% quarterback pressure rate are also 31st. Thank goodness for the Miami Dolphins, the only team below them in all of those categories.
The pass rush, led by edge defenders Brian Burns, Abdul Carter, and Kayvon Thibodeaux, and supplemented by athletic inside linebackers as well as defensive backs capable of blitzing, was supposed to be the strength of the Giants’ defense. Especially with the creativity
expected from new defensive coordinator Dennard Wilson, creativity he showed throughout the summer.
Obviously, that has yet to be the case. The Giants are eighth in the league in points allowed per game (18.3), something they have accomplished despite the lack of pass rush. A ball-control offense, tremendous special teams play, good enough run defense, and five takeaways — tied for fifth in the league — have helped that number.
The pass rush has not.
Giants head coach John Harbaugh knows that has to change.
“What we just need to do is get on track up front in terms of the pass rush. I mean, I think they’re doing a really good job. All those guys have done a very good job against the run,” Harbaugh said. “We’ve been pretty darn consistent against the run. We’ve had a few runs against us in the second half of the last two games that we aren’t happy about. But generally, we’ve been a good run defense. And we want to keep building on that. But we need to get to the quarterback more.”
Per NFL Pro, the opponents’ time to throw against the Giants is 2.70, fifth-fastest in the league. So, the ball is being thrown quickly. Giants’ rushers, meanwhile, have the worst “get-off” in the league at .93 seconds to cross the line of scrimmage.
Harbaugh knows the Giants have to come up with an answer.
“Some of that’s – yeah, some of that, the ball comes out quick. Sometimes they’re chipping. They’re doing a lot of things to offset our pass rush,” Harbaugh said. “But they’re having a little too much success offsetting it right now. So, we’ve got to keep finding ways to get the quarterback on the ground.
“The biggest issue probably is the way we’re being attacked. But we’ve got to find a way to overcome those, like I mentioned just in the last answer. So, for us, we’ve got to find a way to overcome those things. It’s always a chess game. It’s always kind of an evolution, back and forth. And we’ve got to find our next move. We’ve got to find our next couple moves to get ourselves to the quarterback. We’ll be working really hard, and we have been, but we’ve got to find – we’ve got to make it happen. And that’s what we’ll be working to do.”
Without Burns, who had 16.5 sacks last season and had at 7.5 sacks, in each of his first seven seasons, much of the pass-rush burden will fall to Abdul Carter and Kayvon Thibodeaux.
Carter has the Giants’ only sack and eight pressures, but has yet to showcase the game-wrecking productivity that got him selected No. 3 overall in the 2025 NFL Draft. Carter’s 92 pass rush snaps is fourth-most among edge defenders, but he is tied for 23rd in pressures. There are 27 edge defenders with 50 or more pass rush attempts. Carter’s 8.7% pressure rate is 31st.
The Giants need to find ways to get Carter favorable matchups and free him up from the inevitable double teams that will increasingly come his way without Burns.
Thibodeaux, who has no sacks, four pressures, and just one quarterback hit in 56 pass rush snaps thus far, is going to play much more with Burns down. He is going to have to step up.
“I’ve just got to play my game. I’ve got to command, and I’ve got to make my presence known,” Thibodeaux said during a Tuesday conference call with New York media.
Thibodeaux had a career-high 11.5 sacks in 2023, the only double-digit sack season of his four-year career. In his last 25 games, he has just eight.
The Giants will need him to be more impactful.
The answer, though, is a lot more complicated than “Carter and Thibodeaux need to do better.” Here are a few thoughts:
- The answer isn’t “blitz more.” To me, and I am not a defensive coordinator, one of the answers has to be “disguise more.” Too often, I think it is clear by defensive formation who is coming on the pass rush, and where they are coming from. That is making life too easy on offensive lines. I would like to see a better job of hiding their intentions, putting doubt into the minds of the quarterback and offensive linemen about who needs to be accounted for.
- The run defense has, statistically, been OK. Still, it needs to be better. Second-and-5 allows quick game, or another run. Second-and-10 does not.
- The offense needs to be better. The Giants have scored 18 points the past two weeks. Convert a couple of those red zone opportunities against the Tennessee Titans into touchdowns, and you have a big lead that forces the Titans out of quick game and turns the pass rush loose.
However, they do it, the Giants know the pass rush has to actually begin looking like a pass rush.
