At East West Football Network, draft season never ends. Throughout the summer, myself and my fellow Bold Take Scouting co-founder Alex Greb will be publishing “first look” scouting reports for notable potential 2022 NFL Draft prospects. The first is Kayvon Thibodeaux, Oregon’s 6’5″ 250 lb. defensive end who you’ve surely seen atop mock drafts already. Thibodeaux was named First-team All-Pac-12 in 2020.
Strengths: Thibodeaux possesses incredible natural gifts for a pass rusher. His first-step quickness is excellent and he also has great bend to flatten to the quarterback. Thibodeaux has rare length and utilizes it extremely well, consistently getting into the offensive lineman’s chest to control him. He pairs this with elite natural strength, converting speed to power as he drives back his opponent, something he does very often on tape. Thibodeaux is one of very few pass rushers in college and even the pros who has elite athleticism to bend around his blocker and elite bull rush ability to plow through him. He additionally has a relentless, aggressive mentality to pair with his incredible physical traits, making him a constant menace as a pass rusher and a very high-effort player with a hot motor overall. In terms of his pass rush arsenal, Thibodeaux has flashed several moves that can be built upon to refine his game. Thibodeaux is already a highly aware and intelligent football player. He has a true nose for the ball carrier in this sense, which shows against the run where he locates the ball very well, in addition to diagnosing the play at a high level. Thibodeaux excels against the run, with the strength and length to shed blocks and set the edge, as well as highly reliable open-field tackling. These traits make him a serious threat to blow up run plays in the backfield. Thibodeaux is a constant threat to bat down passes, displaying impressive timing in doing so. Thibodeaux may have more versatility to uncover, as his athletic traits and comfort in space allude to serious coverage potential worthy of developing.
Weaknesses/Areas to Improve: Thibodeaux could look to add 10-15 pounds this offseason. While it isn’t common, there are instances of him being overpowered by larger offensive linemen in the run game and more often of him getting pushed off his pass rush arc, which extra muscle mass would prevent. If he wants to be in the same class of slam-dunk edge rusher picks with elite physical traits like Myles Garrett and Chase Young, Thibodeaux could look to do this. Thibodeaux needs to keep developing his pass rush moves, since he will be truly unstoppable if he becomes a great technician on top of a strong, ultra-athletic, relentless edge rusher. His counters especially need work. Late in the rep when he is getting stalled by his blocker he also has a tendency to stand up too tall and lose leverage, which he should look to diminish. Lastly, Thibodeaux should look to control his aggressiveness, as it can get the better of him sometimes and cause him to overrun the ball carrier.
Bottom Line and 2021 Outlook: Thibodeaux is a special talent in the 2022 draft class, with great get-off, bend, length, and strength, as well as intelligence, awareness, and aggressiveness to make him an extremely dangerous playmaker against both the run and the pass. With his elite foundation of traits, I expect Thibodeaux to wreak havoc in 2021, and if he can add some bulk and fine-tune his game he can truly contend to be the first overall pick in 2022. Although the 2022 NFL Draft is far away, Thibodeaux is the leading candidate to be the first non-quarterback taken ahead of the 2021 season.
