Jaxson Dart has been operating with a brick wall on his blind side.
Since returning from a 13-game absence, Giants left tackle Andrew Thomas has allowed zero sacks, zero quarterback hits and only two pressures on his first 130 pass-blocking snaps, per Pro Football Focus.
You can start there as to why Dart has navigated the pocket so confidently in his first three career starts.
But the challenge increases Sunday for the Giants offensive line against a Broncos defense that leads the NFL in sacks (30), pressures (75) and pressure percentage per dropback (32.9 percent).
The key matchup will be Thomas versus NFL sacks leader Nik Bonitto (eight).
“I know I’m a true competitor, and the rest of the guys in the room [are] as well,” Thomas said. “We want to play against the best. They are one of the most talented groups up front. So we are excited for the challenge.”
Thomas has shown no ill effects of the Lisfranc foot injury that sidelined him for the final 11 games last season, through the offseason and the first two games of this season.
Bonitto has lined up against the opposing left tackle on 226 of 233 snaps along the defensive line so far.
“First, his explosiveness — he does a really good job of getting off the ball,” Thomas said. “A lot of the speed [rushers], normally, they don’t have great power. What makes him unique is he can power rush as well, so you have to be ready for both.”
Thomas is a self-described “perfectionist,” so he isn’t ready to say he is all the way back to his 2022 Second-Team All-Pro form just yet.
“I followed the plan that the trainers and the staff had for me, and I think it worked,” Thomas said. “I’ve played a lot of ball. So, I wasn’t unsure of how I would respond. The thing I was most worried about was getting in shape. That’s the hardest thing to get back.”
RB Cam Skattebo was nominated for the FedEx Air & Ground NFL Players of the Week award after rushing for 98 yards and three touchdowns against the Eagles.
Skattebo is up against Patrick Mahomes, Drake Maye, Josh Jacobs, Rico Dowdle and Jaxon Smith-Njigba.
Fans can vote at NFL.com/FedEx, on the NFL mobile app, or @NFL on X through 3 p.m. Wednesday. The two players with the highest vote totals are the winners.
If Skattebo wins, FedEx will make a $2,000 donation to Food Bank for New York City, which is part of the Feeding America network.
Kayvon Thibodeaux left Oregon just as Bo Nix arrived, but Nix beat Thibodeaux’s Ducks when he was at Auburn before his transfer. This will be their first meeting as Giants pass rusher trying to sack Broncos quarterback.
“I think he is a great player,” Thibodeaux said. “We’ve been at the top of the [2019] recruiting class since high school. I’ve been to different camps and environments where he has been. I think he is savvy and playing some great ball, but we’re definitely going to try to limit what he can do on Sunday.”
Giants-Eagles averaged 15.62 million viewers on Prime Video despite the Philadelphia audience being split with the Phillies-Dodgers game.
It was the fifth-most-watched “Thursday Night Football” game on Prime since the streaming service took over exclusive rights in 2022.
LB Jonas Griffith and WR Juice Wells Jr. — Dart’s teammate at Ole Miss — were added to the practice squad.
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
