Giants’ Kayvon Thibodeaux said to have minor ‘tweaked hip’

Kayvon Thibodeaux of the New York Giants was held out of spring practices after suffering a “tweaked hip” early in OTAs, per a report from Dan Duggan of The Athletic.

Duggan added that the injury is “considered minor” and that he would expect the Oregon edge defender, selected No. 5 overall in the 2022 NFL Draft, to be ready for the July 26 start of training camp.

Thibodeaux worked on the side with trainers during the team’s mandatory minicamp. He looked fine while running and doing agility drills.

The Giants were cautious with injured or rehabbing players throughout the spring. More than a dozen players spent all or most of the spring in red non-contact jerseys. Some did no on field work at all, others did individual drills only and some mixed in occasionally in team periods or special teams drills.

First-year head coach Brian Daboll explained the team’s conservative approach.

“Look, there’s a time to be smart and there’s a time to make sure you’re pushing through things the best you can. You have to balance those,” Daboll said. “What is it, June what? June 8th. So guys that we’ve got to take a little bit off them on June 8th so they’re ready to go fully on July 26^th, I think that’s being smart.

“You push guys through in training camp, maybe it’s the same exact thing and they don’t have a red jersey on. It’s week two in training camp, everybody is sore, we know we’re sore, but we’ve got to get ready to go, then there’s a time to push through things.

“All we’re trying to do is try to be as healthy as we can be when training camp gets here.”

The Giants, who also had the benefit of an additional voluntary minicamp since Daboll is a first-year coach, cancelled their final practice in lieu of a barbecue.

Teams around the league held lighter practices or cancelled many practices altogether as teams prioritized being as healthy as possible for training camp rather than pushing players in the spring.

Judging from some of what we have seen in social media recently, perhaps that approach will pay off for the Giants.

The news on Thibodeaux seems to be good.

An Instagram photo of a workout conducted this week by Giants quarterback Daniel Jones shows wide receiver Kenny Golladay, who was in a red jersey and did only a handful of individual drills this spring, as a participant.

A Twitter video of left tackle Andrew Thomas, limited and appearing to hobble somewhat throughout the spring as he recovered from ankle surgery, shows a healthy-looking Thomas running and moving well.

With training camp starting in roughly a month, those all look like positive developments for the Giants.