Kayvon Thibodeaux is wrestling through the noise.

After recording five half-sacks last season as part of 5.5 total, the outside linebacker is determined to finish more plays. Making that his offseason goal, Thibodeaux turned to an ancient sport to help him pin down more quarterbacks on Sundays.

"Wrestling is another form of tackling," Thibodeaux said Thursday afternoon after the second practice of his fourth training camp. "I just wanted to make sure that I can use some techniques from wrestling into football."

In today's NFL, the first live tackling does not occur for nearly seven months from the time the regular season ends to the first preseason game. For starting players like Thibodeaux, it might be even longer and they must wait until Week 1 kicks off.

Thibodeaux and the Giants can't afford to start slow.

"Especially on the quarterbacks, until you actually get in the game, that's the only time we actually get to replicate sacking a quarterback," Thibodeaux said. "I've been wrestling a little bit, taking some guys to the ground. I've been on bags and stuff, working on my tackling earlier in the season."

Thibodeaux recorded his 5.5 sacks in 12 games last season. He missed Weeks 6 through 10 due to a wrist injury, temporarily stalling his follow-up to a career-high 11.5 sacks in 2023.

That year, Thibodeaux joined Micah Parsons and T.J. Watt as the only players to have double-digit sacks over the first 11 weeks of a season within their first two NFL campaigns. Thibodeaux also set the franchise record for most sacks (14.5) by a Giant in his first 25 career games.

Overall, Thibodeaux is the first Giants defender with 21+ sacks in his first three career seasons since Jason Pierre-Paul had 27.5 sacks from 2010 to 2012.

Those numbers are why the Giants exercised the fifth-year option on the fifth overall pick in the 2022 NFL Draft. Fittingly, general manager Joe Schoen announced the news on draft night this past April, just minutes after the Giants selected Abdul Carter third overall.

Now, he is making a great tag-team partner.

"It's exciting," Thibodeaux said. "We're rushing, we're doing different things, moving him around, excited to see what it'll be. … He's a hard worker. He is fast. He's twitchy. He can play it all."