Giants.com is counting down to the start of 2025 Giants Training Camp with 25 questions in 25 days.
16) How are the Giants going to deploy the trio of Abdul Carter, Kayvon Thibodeaux, and Brian Burns?
John Schmeelk: Everywhere. I want to throw Chauncey Golston into this conversation too since he might provide more versatility than any of the three in the question. I have thought about this a bunch, so let's break it up into real numbers and detail.
In a normal formation there are two edge players on the field at a time. The Giants averaged around 62 plays per game last year on defense, which is on the lower side. For our purposes, let's use an average of 65 defensive plays per game, which means 130 snaps to dole out between the two primary edge spots per game.
Last season, Brian Burns played 79 percent of the defensive snaps and Kayvon Thibodeaux played 75 percent. Azeez Ojulari was at 58 percent. Using simple math, that means those three players were on the field together for 12 percent of the team snaps. Some of those might have come in passing situations, but I would bet even more came in short yardage and goal line.
I bet that the Giants would like to bring down the percentage of snaps that Burns and Thibodeaux play. A team like the Eagles that likes to rotate waves of edge rushers had their top two edge players (Josh Sweat and Nolan Smith) play only 63 and 55 percent of the defensive snaps last year, though both did miss one full game. I'll be a bit more aggressive with the Giants and put Burns at 70 percent (roughly 45 snaps) and Thibodeaux at 65 percent (42 snaps). That leaves another 65 percent (42 snaps) of the snaps just on the edge for Carter and Gholston.
Carter provides a lot more flexibility to line up in passing situations behind the line of scrimmage as a joker rusher than Ojulari did last year. Let's say Carter does that on 15 percent of plays each week, which would be about 10 plays per game. There should be another eight plays (12 percent) where he shares the field with Carter and Thibodeaux in short yardage.
I know this is a lot of math. Stick with me. That means Carter is getting 27 percent of the snaps (15 percent as a joker rusher + 12 percent in short yardage) without ever lining up as a traditional edge player. To get him to 65 percent of the workload, that means we have to give him 38 percent (25 snaps) of the straight up edge snaps, ideally in down and distances teams are more likely to pass.
We had 65 percent (42 snaps) of the edge snaps remaining after Burns and Thibodeaux, so if 38 percent (25 snaps) goes to Carter, that means 27 percent (17 snaps) of the remaining edge snaps go to Golston. To get him to a 60 percent snap share, he needs to get 33 percent (21 snaps) of the snaps at various spots on the defensive line, including short yardage where he can share the field with the other edges. It is a very workable number for Golston, given his ability to line up anywhere from the three-technique to nine-technique.
I imagine Burns and Thibodeaux still get most of the straight up edge snaps, with Carter getting a lot of work there as well, but also being featured as a stand-up rusher on third down. I would also expect Carter's edge snaps to increase as the year goes along and he continues to improve where by the final week of the season, he is probably near even ground with Burns and Thibodeaux in terms of how often he lines up on the edge. Golston will be the true wild card and line up all over the front. Burns and Thibodeaux will get most of their time on the edge, though I haven't even accounted for the snaps they push into the three- or five-technique, which would free up even more edge snaps.
I know it was complicated with a lot of math, but I hope you followed that and it makes sense. In short, there are plenty of snaps to go around.
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