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Desperate times sometimes call for desperate measures.
The Giants trading for J.J. McCarthy applies here.
In need of a backup quarterback, the Giants on Monday sent a 2027 fifth-round draft pick to the Vikings for McCarthy, who had been a colossal bust during his two-plus years in Minnesota. McCarthy joins a quarterback room devoid of Jaxson Dart — out for the season following knee surgery — and he will learn the playbook as Jameis Winston continues to start.
“Really glad, really happy, very excited to add J.J. McCarthy,” head coach John Harbaugh said. “I think he’s a strong young quarterback … very talented player and he’s gonna make us a stronger football team. I think it makes us better.”
Once Dart went down and out, the Giants knew they needed a better option behind Winston than Jake Haener, a 27-year-old with one NFL start. McCarthy has talent, but the Vikings being willing to give up on him so quickly after making him the No. 10 overall pick in the 2024 NFL Draft indicates how swiftly he fell out of favor with head coach Kevin O’Connell, who is known for his ability to work with and improve quarterbacks.
“He’s a talented guy,” Harbaugh said. “There’s just no doubt about it, he’s talented. He was a top 10 pick for a reason. I know he didn’t hold on to that job in Minnesota and that’s why he’s available.”
Haener was waived and will re-sign to the practice squad. The team will determine later in the week whether McCarthy or Haener serves as the backup to Winston for Sunday’s game against the Cardinals.
There is no change at starting quarterback.
“Jameis will be the starter for as long as I can see into the future but I don’t know,” Harbaugh said. “Nobody knows.
“I know that I have complete confidence that Jameis is going to play a great football game on Sunday and our guys are going to play great around him.”
McCarthy, 23, is four months older than Dart. He won a national championship at Michigan and went 27-1 as the starter, playing for Jim Harbaugh, John’s younger brother. John Harbaugh downplayed that connection, saying he paid special attention to Michigan while his brother was there and thus formed his own opinion of McCarthy. He said Jim “always had good things to say about J.J.”
The Giants scouted McCarthy heavily leading into the 2024 draft, as they certainly were in the quarterback market. Caleb Williams, Jayden Daniels and Drake Maye went first, second and third to the Bears, Commanders and Patriots, respectively. The Giants owned the No. 6 overall pick and could have taken McCarthy but they passed on him and opted for wide receiver Malik Nabers.
It is believed the Giants had a second-round grade on McCarthy and they had reservations about his mental makeup and how he would fare playing in the fishbowl of the New York/New Jersey market.
Conversations about adding a quarterback started soon after Dart went down in the Week 2 loss to the Rams. Harbaugh said general manager Joe Schoen and the team’s “high-level scouts” brought McCarthy’s name to the table.
“They felt very strongly he was going to be a good option,” Harbaugh said. “That was interesting to me.
“He can throw it, he can run it, he makes plays. There’s a lot of things he can do better from what he did, obviously and we’re going to see where it goes from here.”
McCarthy missed his entire rookie season with a knee injury while backing up Sam Darnold. Despite going 14-3, the Vikings traded Darnold to the Seahawks and named McCarthy their starting quarterback. It turned out to be a huge miscalculation.
McCarthy won his NFL debut with a comeback victory over the Bears and was named the NFC Offensive Player of the Week. It went downhill rather rapidly from there. He missed five games with a high ankle sprain and one more with a fracture in his right hand. In 10 starts, he completed 57.4 percent of his passes, with 11 touchdown passes and 12 interceptions for a passer rating of 72.6. He went 6-4 as a starter and struggled mightily with ball placement and a general lack of maturity.
The Vikings signed Kyler Murray in free agency and McCarthy dropped so low on the depth chart that he was the No. 3 quarterback, behind Murray and Carson Wentz.
At 6-foot-3 and 219 pounds, the athletic McCarthy gives the Giants a much more mobile option. Winston, making his first start this season in place of Dart, played in the wind and rain this past Sunday and completed 14 of 22 passes for 118 yards, failing to get his team in the end zone in a 12-7 victory over the Titans.
At this point, there is no expectation that Winston’s hold on the starting job is in jeopardy. That could change, of course, based on the results and how quickly McCarthy picks up the offensive system.
