Tyrod Taylor – © USA TODAY Sports
LEONARD WILLIAMS TRADED TO SEAHAWKS…
In advance of Tuesday’s NFL trade deadline, the New York Giants have traded defensive lineman Leonard Williams to the Seattle Seahawks. In return, the Giants will receive 2nd-round pick in the 2024 NFL Draft and a 5th-round picks in the 2025 NFL Draft. According to multiple media reports, the Giants will still be responsible for most of the remaining $10 million prorated portion of his 2023 salary. Williams was set to become an unrestricted free agent after this season.
Williams was the sixth player taken overall in the 2015 NFL Draft by the New York Jets. The Giants acquired Williams by trade from the New York Jets in late October 2019 in exchange for 3rd- and 5th-round draft picks. His best NFL season was with the Giants in 2020 when he finished with 57 tackles, 14 tackles for losses, 11.5 sacks, and 30 quarterback hits. Williams missed four regular-season games in 2022 due to knee (3 games) and neck/stinger (1 game) injuries. The neck issue nagged him for most of the second half of the season and also caused him to exit a few games early. Williams finished with his least productive season since joining the Giants in 2019, being credited with 45 tackles, five tackles for losses, 2.5 sacks, 12 quarterback hits, one forced fumble, and two fumble recoveries. Through eight games this year, Williams had 21 tackles and 1.5 sacks.
DANIEL JONES CLEARED FOR CONTACT…
New York Giants quarterback Daniel Jones has been cleared for contact by doctors. Jones has missed three consecutive games with a neck injury that he suffered in Week 5 against the Miami Dolphins. Jones will practice fully on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, back-up quarterback Tyrod Taylor spent Sunday night, being evaluated for a rib injury that knocked him out of the game against the New York Jets. Hew was released this afternoon and ESPN is reporting that he is “week-to-week” in terms of when he will be able to play again.
OCTOBER 30, 2023 BRIAN DABOLL PRESS CONFERENCE…
New York Giants Head Coach Brian Daboll addressed the media on Monday (VIDEO):
Q: Do you have any update on (quarterback) Tyrod (Taylor) to get out of the hospital or anything like that?
A: He’s still there and he has ribs. He’s pretty sore today.
Q: Are the ribs broken? Or why are they keeping him there, I guess? Just to keep him stabilized.
A: Yeah, I’m not going to get into – he’s got ribs. I’m not going to get into what they are. He’s pretty sore right now so assuming he’ll be out here – I can’t tell you when, but he’s got sore ribs right now.
Q: It sounds like it’s just a matter of discomfort, he’s not in any danger or anything.
A: No, no, no. He’s okay in that regard, yeah.
Q: Can you take us through the timeline with (quarterback) Daniel (Jones) here? It sounds like he’s been cleared for contact.
A: He met with the doctor pregame, so he did his tests. The week before he did it on Friday, so he did his tests and they told me he’d be ready to go next week.
Q: So that means that Daniel will be on the practice field and should be good to go full on Wednesday. Is that correct?
A: Correct.
Q: Did you think about in overtime – obviously, most of the time in overtime the team that wins the toss wants the ball in overtime but given the strange nature of this game and the way you were leaning on defense and special teams and field position, was that a debate? Was that something you were thinking about?
A: Yeah, it was discussed. It was definitely discussed but decided to take it.
Q: What was the main reason to decide to take it there?
A: I mean, they’d driven down there in (regulation), had some stuff that we liked so decided to take it and try to go down there and score.
Q: Just a followup, so why the appointment on Sunday morning? Like why couldn’t it have been Saturday because conceivably he could’ve played yesterday.
A: That’s when it was so those guys told me after – actually, they told me after the game so that’s when it was.
Q: What do you mean? Like scheduling purposes? I think it’s —
A: No, no, no. That’s when it was. He was in the training room before the game and they told me about it after.
Q: Yesterday you said it was going to be a run heavy game plan regardless, so just curious why seven wide receivers and only two tight ends? Because obviously losing (tight end) Darren (Waller) impacted what you could do there.
A: Again, we had a back up plan and I’d say the weather, I mean, we were going to run the ball, too, the weather played – you never know what the weather’s going to be, we figured it’d be rainy, played an important part of it. But we had a back up tackle ready to go in that regard that we felt – was (guard Marcus) McKethan in the blocking aspect of it.
Q: Obviously, you ran the ball a ton there in the second half. Why not just more creativity? You didn’t do any two running back sets, you only had one wildcat snap, you didn’t get (wide receiver) Parris (Campbell) involved in end arounds. Whatever it may have been, it seemed like it was pretty vanilla.
A: I mean, got (wide receiver) Wan’Dale (Robinson) involved. The schemes, not sure if you looked at the schemes, the schemes were a variety of schemes that we had. Different types of traps, tackle traps, guard traps, toss cracks, speed sweeps, inside zones, zone reads, a wildcat play, I wouldn’t just say it was one run. I’d say it was, schematically, a variety of runs.
Q: With Tyrod, are you hopeful that he’s going to get released today? Or is he going to have to stay there a little while in the hospital?
A: I don’t know that yet. I’m hopeful it’ll be here soon but it’s sore ribs, so.
Q: With Daniel, I know you said that’s just when the appointment was but why was he not a possibility then to at least be the backup?
A: I told you when they told me he was going to be out. They told me he was out, so he was out, and they told me after the game that they looked at him he’d be ready to go.
Q: And you had an opportunity to go back, I’m sure you watched the game at this point, the whole way the end of the game unfolded, kicking the field goal, the offsides, the spotting of the ball, getting the ball to start overtime, is there anything that you look back on and you were unsure about now that you had more time? What did you think when you went back and watched that last five minutes of game action?
A: We had some chances there. We had some chances to – probably about a handful of plays that if we make one of them, probably get a different result. You look at a lot, obviously, but going for the field goal, I’m secure with what we did there.
Q: What about the (running back) Saquon (Barkley) play? The first down. It was almost like – did he think that you didn’t want to score? Did he think they were letting him score? Did you talk to him about that?
A: Yeah, I did. No, he made a cut and he kind of bounced it back, then he was so conscious of the ball, he was squeezing on the ball, he slipped a little bit.
Q: So, you didn’t tell Saquon to get down in that situation?
A: No.
Q: On Daniel, why was he listed questionable last week for Washington but ruled out for the Jets game?
A: He got looked at on Friday, so I was waiting until – it was Friday at 3:30, I believe, his appointment to see where he was at. That was the – whatever it was two Friday’s ago and then he didn’t have one this week. So, like I said, when they told me he was out, that’s when I told you guys he was out.
Q: As far as his actual injury and being cleared, apparently, it’s a disk issue and he had a disk issue two years ago. What does the training staff tell you about why he’s safe enough to handle contact? Because that’s obviously a very serious thing and a serious part of the body.
A: I’d say that he met with the spine surgeon, the doctor, and the doctor cleared him. I sat down with them, that’s what they’ve told me, so he’s cleared from that doctor.
Q: Why on Friday did you kind of go out of your way to almost lead us to believe that Daniel would be awhile or perhaps even if we wanted to extrapolate, which we shouldn’t I guess, but maybe that he even had a setback?
A: All I said was he’s getting better, and we’ll see what happens next week. I think I said it a few times. Which he’s getting better, and we’ll see where we’re at next week. That’s what they told me.
Q: You’re getting a lot of questions about Daniel and perhaps being active on Sunday. Can you just clarify the rule on that? Once you list him out on Friday, can you change that on Sunday morning?
A: No, he’s out.
Q: So, there was no possibility even if you would have known Sunday morning?
A: Again, I go by the doctors. When they tell me he’s out, he’s out.
Q: Considering Tyrod’s situation, do you guys need to work out quarterbacks and look at adding a quarterback this week?
A: Yeah, (Senior Vice President/General Manager) Joe (Schoen) and I will – I’ll go back upstairs, and I’ll have a meeting here with Joe shortly.
Q: Anything on (kicker) Graham (Gano)? You said yesterday he’s fine but is there any concern about his health at all?
A: No, he’ll be okay.
Q: A lot has been made about the gameplan in the second half and running the football and going through Saquon. How much of that was the gameplan and how much of it was (quarterback Tommy) DeVito being in there? There’s this feeling that you guys didn’t trust DeVito to throw the football and if that was the case then why would he be your backup quarterback on gameday?
A: I think there’s always adjustments but the way our defense was playing, we were going to make sure we took care of the ball, end every drive with a kick, have good ball security and again, a few plays here and there, we make one of them, we probably get a different result. That was the plan going in after halftime.
Q: Was it a statement about DeVito?
A: I think there’s a lot of things that played into it. The weather, it’s a heck of a defense, making sure we’re doing what we need to do in terms of staying on track and if we have to punt, we have to punt. The way our defense was playing against their offense, felt good about that. Try to play a field position game and that’s what we were going to try to do.
Q: Just curious, do you guys need to bring in a quarterback given Tyrod’s situation this week?
A: Yeah, somebody asked that.
Q: Sorry. Got cut off for a second.
A: No, that’s okay. I’m going to go back up there and meet with Joe here, so we’ll talk about that. It’s definitely a possibility.
Q: There’s obviously a lot of questions about the timing of these appointments or these checkups. Are you at all frustrated by them or confused about the timing of them? If he’d been cleared sooner, there could’ve been some adjustments made.
A: I’d say whenever they tell me he’s ready, that’s when he’s ready. So, when they tell me he’s not ready, he’s not ready. When they did, he’s ready, so whenever they give me the information.
Q: Just the big picture. What does it mean to a team to get its quarterback back?
A: Yeah, it’s good. Again, whether it’s the quarterback, the left tackle, the right tackle, the running back – I mean, any time you can get good players, it certainly helps.
Q: The left tackle and right tackle are probably making progress too towards Sunday?
A: Making progress, but we’ll see where we’re at Wednesday here.
THE PLAYERS SPEAK…
Transcripts and video clips of the media sessions with the following players are available in The Corner Forum and on YouTube:
WHAT’S UP NEXT…
The players are off on Tuesday and there is no media availability to the team. The players return to practice on Wednesday.
Eric Kennedy
Eric Kennedy is Editor-in-Chief of BigBlueInteractive.com, a publication of Big Blue Interactive, LLC. Follow @BigBlueInteract on Twitter.
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