Why gun-related arrest didn't prevent Giants from drafting Malik Nabers

New York Giants general manager Joe Schoen explained on Thursday night why he was comfortable making LSU Tigers wide receiver Malik Nabers the sixth pick of the 2024 NFL Draft after Nabers was involved in a gun-carrying arrest in February 2023. 

"We've got an extensive process in terms of background on these guys," Schoen said, per the Giants' website. "And from watching it, we bring up the film, watched what happened. (Head of security) Jerry Meade does a phenomenal job for us. We have other resources that we reach out to and use, whether it's boots on the ground on the campus, in the cities, wherever it may be. We're very comfortable with the players we turn the card in on."

According to ESPN and Wilson Alexander of Nola.com, Nabers was arrested back in February 2023 after police noticed an "L-shaped object" in his front pants pocket amid Mardi Gras celebrations. Prosecutors later dropped the charge on the condition that he surrender the weapon. 

"Based upon the lack of a previous criminal background and the individual currently being enrolled in college, we did not proceed with the misdemeanor gun-carrying charge against him at this time in exchange for his immediate and voluntary forfeiture of the firearm," the Orleans Parish District Attorney’s office said about the matter in a released statement.

Some fans may remember how similar red flags didn't keep the Giants from spending a first-round draft pick on receiver Kadarius Toney in the spring of 2021. Toney appeared in 12 of a possible 24 games before New York traded him to the Kansas City Chiefs in October 2022 for a handful of reasons. 

Leading up to this year's draft, stories linked the Giants with Nabers, Michigan Wolverines quarterback J.J. McCarthy and Washington Huskies receiver Rome Odunze, among other players. In the end, Schoen passed on replacing Week 1 starting quarterback Daniel Jones and on Odunze to select Nabers. 

"We had a lot of meetings throughout the season and at the end of the day, we just thought Malik's toughness, separation, speed -- not that Rome doesn't have all those things; Rome is a very good player, too -- just when it came down to it, what we were looking for, Malik checked a lot of those boxes -- his person, his toughness, competes, his production, the versatility," Schoen said.

What's done is done, and Schoen now will hope Nabers proves to be what Toney wasn't for the Giants.