Kayvon Thibodeaux, the New York Giants’ premier edge rusher, has high praise for his teammate, Bobby Okereke.

The Giants signed Okereke from the Indianapolis Colts to a four-year, $40 million deal in the 2023 offseason. This was their splash signing of the year and it paid off in dividends as Okereke was a force to be reckoned with.

The middle linebacker finished the season with 149 tackles (his third straight season posting over 130). He also finished with career-highs in sacks (2.5), tackles for loss (11), and forced fumbles (four). His defense in the pass game was also elite as he posted a career-high 10 passes defensed and tied his career-high in interceptions with two.

Okereke’s presence can be felt alone by how much he stuffed the stat sheet but his leadership and drive make him that much more impactful.

“We just signed a guy, Bobby Okereke. He’s our middle linebacker. And I literally sat and I thanked God that they brought him on the team,” Thibodeaux said on the 7PM in Brooklyn podcast. “His ambition — he’s on Year (6) now, I’m on Year 3. When you talk about who he is at this moment and who I am at this moment, we’re not the same player. He embodies who I want to be.”

Okereke is a great person for Thibodeaux to look up to and probably helped him already this past season.

The sophomore edge rusher saw his stats boost from 4.0 to 11.5 sacks and six to 12 tackles for loss as he had a true breakout season. Thibodeaux’s offseason work definitely paid off and he truly showed why the Giants picked him fifth overall.

Nevertheless, the inspiring words of Okereke in the locker room surely helped.

“He literally told me, ‘Bro, every day you come here you gotta find motivation.’ (One day) he gets in the cold tub, right, (and) he put his neck all the way down up to here. Cold tub, me? I’m going to the hips. He’s like, ‘Damn, KT, you ain’t gonna give your shoulders no love?’ I’m like, ‘Man, my shoulders don’t need no love.’ He said, ‘Man, what, your shoulders ain’t worth $100 million?’ He said, ‘Oh, your shoulders ain’t worth greatness?’ And I’m like, ‘alright you got me messed up.’”

Okereke still has three years left on his contract and with a fifth-year option on Thibodeaux’s contract, it looks like the linebacker/edge-rusher duo will be wreaking havoc for a few more years.

The Giants have found two foundational building blocks for their defense for years to come.