The New York Giants defense has improved over the last few weeks. Their latest performance against the Seahawks dominated, as the team totaled seven sacks, ten quarterback hits, and six tackles for a loss. The week prior, they held the Cowboys to just 20 points despite the loss.
While everyone is performing well, according to Pro Football Focus’s new metric, “tackle for loss rate” which measures the rate at which players force a negative play for the opponent, the Giants have two defenders among the league’s best in that category.
Linebackers Micah McFadden and Kayvon Thibodeaux, both from the 2022 draft class, ranked among the top 25 defenders league-wide through the first four weeks of the season in this metric.
McFadden's 4.69% tackle-for-loss rate places him at the No. 16 spot. The former fifth-round pick has blossomed into a viable starter next to Bobby Okereke, who also made the list with a 1.01% rate. Considering McFadden missed Week 1 due to injury, his placing high on the list is a good sign for things to come.
Thibodeaux came in at No. 22 with a 4.23% tackle-for-loss rate. The former fifth overall pick in 2022 exploded for 11.5 sacks last season, but the Giants still needed help on the other side of the defensive line, which is why they traded for Brian Burns, who also made the list with a 2.44% rate.
Thibodeaux’s quest to rank higher has been put on hold for the next several weeks after he suffered a broken scaphoid bone in his wrist that required surgery this week.
Getting pressure on the quarterback is one thing, but stopping the run has been a constant issue for the Giants spanning multiple seasons. They've been able to do that to an extent, surrendering just 115.4 yards per game on the ground, 12th in the NFL. While the Giants have made significant and noticeable progress, they also know that they are far from being the type of unit they know they can be, and continue to work at that daily.
