Hall of Fame linebacker Lawrence Taylor has been arrested once again.
Via TMZ.com, Taylor turned himself in on Wednesday. He faces a felony charge of failing to report a name or residence change as a registered sex offender.
The incident occurred in Broward County, Florida. He spent several hours behind bars before being released.
Taylor was arrested on similar charges in December 2021.
His lawyer said in a statement to TMZ.com that the latest situation was the result of a “misunderstanding,” and that he did not knowingly commit any crime.
Taylor was declared a sex offender in 2011. That status requires him to inform authorities of any residence changes.
Among the leading topics of the current edition of Hard Knocks has been the Giants’ handling of running back Saquon Barkley’s foray into free agency.
Barkley’s run with the team ended when the Giants opted not to make an overwhelming bid to hold onto the second overall pick of the 2018 draft and watched him sign with the Eagles instead. The show has featured conversations involving co-owner John Mara, General Manager Joe Schoen and others about the implications of both signing Barkley and letting him go to another team, but there’s been a bit less about the pursuit of the player who will be the lead back this season.
That’s Devin Singletary, who was drafted by the Bills when Schoen worked in Buffalo and who signed with the Giants after finishing last season as the top back in Houston. During an appearance on The Hard Knocks Podcast with Peter Schrager, Schoen explained why he thinks the team remains in good hands with Singletary.
“He was a guy we had on our radar the last four years,” Schoen said. “He’s been the leading rusher on whatever team he’s been on. The last 4 years, those teams have won a playoff game. So he’s good enough to win with. He’s healthy, he’s durable and he’s good enough to win playoff games.”
The Giants won one of the two playoff games they played with Barkley and they’re betting that the combination of moves they made this offseason will lead to more fruitful results in the future.
The Bengals hit the jackpot when they drafted wide receiver Ja’Marr Chase with the fifth pick in the first round of the 2021 draft and the Giants hope they did the same by taking a wideout from Chase’s alma mater with the sixth overall pick this year.
Malik Nabers followed in Chase’s footsteps at LSU before becoming the top Giants draft choice this spring. Nabers’s work in the offseason program drew plenty of praise and his fellow wideout Darius Slayton didn’t do anything to slow down the hype train when he compared the rookie to Chase during an appearance on the All Facts No Brakes podcast with Keyshawn Johnson.
“He’s looked good,” Slayton said. “Honestly in my opinion he reminds me of Ja’Marr Chase, it’s like a clone. Malik’s about six-foot, they’re about the same size,” said Slayton. “Dimensionaly they’re about the same, his body movements, it’s actually kind of weird watching him move around. He’s really talented, he’s got good hands. For us, our system, the biggest hiccup as a rookie is trying to get down all these terminologies Daboll has for us. Once he gets all that down, you know I think he’ll have no problem having success.”
Slayton has been the leading receiver for the Giants for most of his five-year run with the NFC East team. Nabers’s arrival might put an end to that, but it’s hard to imagine the Giants seeing that as a negative development.
Participation in offseason Hard Knocks has not been ideal for the Giants. It also could be problematic for some other team.
The third episode of the series creates the impression that someone was tampering with running back Saquon Barkley.
The show opens with G.M. Joe Schoen taking a call from Barkley’s agent, Ed Berry. It seems to be, based on the rest of the episode and Schoen’s ultra-casual work attire, a call that happened on the weekend before the opening of the negotiating window, on Monday, March 11.
During the conversation, Schoen acknowledges that Berry was going to see what else was out there, before giving the Giants a chance to match it.
“This was kind of the whole point,” Schoen says. “You go out, find out what it is, and I’ll just say, ‘Yeah, we’re not gonna be able to do that.’ Or, ‘Yes, yes, we can.”
Berry apparently informs Schoen regarding what else is out there — $12.5 million per year, with $25 million guaranteed. And it’s clear that, if the Giants offer that, Barkley will take it.
That said, it’s unclear which team that number came from. Later in the episode, Schoen says he’s hearing the Bears are driving up the price and the Eagles are out. So maybe it was the Bears. Or maybe it was the Eagles. Or maybe it was someone else.
The next question becomes whether the NFL will do anything about it. In exonerating the Eagles for speaking directly to Barkley during the 52-hour negotiating window, the league said this: “As with every review, should new evidence be uncovered, the league may reopen the investigation.”
If the Eagles were the team talking to Berry before March 11, that would count as new evidence. And the potential violation would shift from talking directly to Barkley after the negotiating window opened to negotiating with Barkley’s agent before the negotiating window opened.
The Giants didn’t seem to be bothered by it. Schoen arguably encouraged the effort to gauge the market, even if it happened before teams were permitted to share that information with the player’s agent.
Technically, it doesn’t matter. Tampering is tampering, even if the team victimized by it welcomes it. As a practical matter, however, it would seem unfair for the league to whack the Eagles or the Bears or something else for participating in a process that gave the Giants the clarity they wanted in order to make a decision about what to offer Barkley.
Giants head coach Brian Daboll would have liked to trade up and select quarterback Jayden Daniels in the 2024 NFL draft.
That was revealed during a brief preview for next week’s episode of Hard Knocks, which shows Giants General Manager Joe Schoen asking in a team personnel meeting whether Daniels is worth trading up for, and Daboll answering that he is.
“Daniels: Have you guys seen enough that you would trade up for him?” Schoen asked.
Daboll answered, “Daniels? I would.”
As it turned out, the Commanders drafted Daniels with the second overall pick, and the Giants stayed where they were in the first round and took Daniels’ LSU receiver Malik Nabers with the sixth pick.
Daboll’s willingness to trade up for a quarterback is another indication that the Giants are preparing to move on from Daniel Jones after the 2024 season, unless Jones is a lot healthier and a lot better than he was last year. The Giants couldn’t get Daniels in the 2024 draft, but they know they need an upgrade at quarterback. Perhaps in the 2025 draft.