You are a highly touted Giants defensive end, expected to rush the quarterback with great zeal and, inevitably, there is a comparison to be made with Michael Strahan, the best to ever do it for the franchise at that position.

Kayvon Thibodeaux in his first season embraced the Strahan aura, the rookie calling the NFL Hall of Famer a mentor and a guiding light for what he wants to be, on the field and off it.

Strahan took a look at what Thibodeaux accomplished in his first season with the Giants and believes the youngster is ahead of where he was at the same stage of development.

“He came in as a better player than me,’’ Strahan said Monday at the Big Daddy Celebrity Golf Classic at Oheka Castle on Long Island. “He came in with a better understanding of the game of football than I did. Obviously, because he had a lot more sacks in his rookie year than I had in mine.’’

Strahan chuckled at that, because he is quite familiar with how the arc of his career turned out.

He had one sack for the Giants as a rookie in 1993.

His first big sack year came in 1996, when he had 14, the start of six double-digit sack seasons in his next nine years, including an NFL-record 22.5 in 2001 and 18.5 in 2003.

In 15 years with the Giants, Strahan finished with 141.5 sacks, sixth on the NFL’s all-time list.

Thibodeaux is in the nascent stage of his NFL life, coming off an extremely solid debut season.

He had four sacks, with only one in his first nine games before finishing with a flourish — three sacks in the last five regular-season games — although he failed to get one in two playoff games.

Strahan saw enough to make a determination.

“This is a guy I know is gonna be a great player for the Giants,’’ Strahan said. “I know he has the worth ethic, he has the desire and as much as you say ‘He’s outgoing, he talks, he does this,’ the guy really works at it, and that’s what I respect about him. It’s not like he’s just saying it and going off raw talent and ability. He’s saying it because he believes it. Because he puts in the work to make it happen.’’

The two did not come to the Giants on equal footing. Strahan, 51, was a second-round pick in 1993 out of Texas Southern, a historically black college in Houston, arriving with far less fanfare than Thibodeaux, the No. 5-overall pick out of Oregon in the 2022 NFL Draft.

Thibodeaux walked in the door, camera and microphone ready, an immediately big personality.

Strahan came to the big city not yet hinting at the megastar he would become in a remarkable post-playing career that includes starring roles as the co-host of “Good Morning America,’’ host of the “$100,000 Pyramid’’ and a regular on the FOX NFL Sunday pregame show.

Strahan’s profile on the field surged as he evolved into a feared pass rusher and, in turn, his magnetic — and sometimes volatile — persona blossomed and eventually sprouted, creating a bona fide media celebrity.

Thibodeaux was far more outgoing as a rookie than Strahan was when he came onto the scene.

“Everybody’s different,’’ Strahan said. “Maybe that’s his way of motivating himself. For me, I didn’t want the extra pressure of saying I was going to do something and then making everybody sitting there watching, seeing if I’m gonna do it. I’d rather just do it and then we talk about it after.

“But he’s lived up to it. He had the great rookie year and I think he’s gonna springboard off that to Year 2 and hopefully he has one of those careers that we look back on as Giants fans and just smile every time his name is mentioned.’’

Strahan and Thibodeaux actually connected for the first time when Thibodeaux was still at Oregon. After the Giants selected Thibodeaux, Strahan reached out and offered some advice: Football is going to be the avenue for everything else you want to do after football. “Keep the main thing the main thing,’’ Strahan told Thibodeaux.

“I think he’s actually a nice kid who looks at the past and doesn’t see it as a bunch of old guys that played an antiquated game that isn’t like it is now,’’ Strahan said. “He looks at it and goes ‘OK it was football then, it’s football now and there’s a lot of things to learn from the past.’

“So I think he’s one of those guys that just looks at the whole landscape and says ‘Hey, where can I learn, where can I get better, not just on the field but off the field?’ I think that’s the best kind of player to have on your team. I think he has a lot of value to the franchise.’’