It wasn’t a surprise that the New York Giants brought in another quarterback once it was confirmed that Jaxson Dart was lost for the season.
No disrespect to Jake Haener, but the Giants couldn’t go through a season with him as their primary backup quarterback — nor go through a season with just two quarterbacks in the building. It was a surprise, however, that the Giants relinquished draft capital for a quarterback, and that the quarterback was former Minnesota Vikings 10th overall pick J.J. McCarthy.
The trade has been controversial, with some fans approving strongly while others decrying the move for McCarthy. Overall, however, most Giants seem to think trading a 5th round pick for the former 10th overall pick is a good — but not great — move.
The splash created by the trade aside, Jameis Winston is still the Giants’ starting quarterback. Head Coach John Harbaugh confirmed that this week, saying that Winston would be the starter for as long as he could foresee.
Of course, life comes at you fast in the NFL, and while the Giants won their first game with Winston as the starter, his play wasn’t exactly inspiring. That’s left room for doubt as to how far into the future Harbaugh is actually forecasting.
So we asked Giants’ fans how long they think it’ll be until McCarthy takes over for Winston as the Giants’ starter. The most common response was “about as soon as possible”, with the runner up being “once he learns the offense.”
It’s worth noting that McCarthy is only just learning the Giants’ offense at this point. The Giants are in the process of teaching him the foundations of their offense and will move on to teaching the rest as the weeks progress. That’s going to be a process, and while the offense is somewhat similar to what he ran in Michigan under Jim Harbaugh, it’s still much more sophisticated.
Jameis Winston doing just enough for the Giants to win last week hasn’t inspired much confidence that he can be the Giants’ starter through the remainder of the season. The other factor driving the speculation that McCarthy will take over sooner rather than later is his athleticism.
While the quarterback run game wasn’t exactly a featured component of the offense with Jaxson Dart — the Giants weren’t running a Georgia Tech or Academy style triple option — the threat of the run was an important weapon. It’s a weapon that Winston doesn’t really possess, and the loss of that potential for a quarterback run changed how the Giants have to scheme their offense. We only have a one game sample size, but the early returns were discouraging, and the Giants’ red zone offense was notably different (and bad).
The thinking seems to be that while McCarthy doesn’t have Dart’s accuracy and touch as a passer, he does combine a strong arm with impressive movement skills. The Giants have a non-traditional collection of skill position players with just three pure receivers, four running backs, a hybrid tight end, three traditional tight ends, and a fullback.
We saw against the Dallas Cowboys that it can be effective in attacking defenses in ways they aren’t commonly built to handle. However, the question is whether a traditional pocket passer like Jameis Winston can get the most out of those skill position players — in addition to the questions as to how much Winston has left. It’s possible that the Giants won’t be able to effectively “change lanes” as Matt Nagy put it, and might need a mobile quarterback to slow the defense and create opportunities for the unconventional skill position players.
As things stand now, the Giants are 2.5-point underdogs against the Arizona Cardinals at home, per FanDuel. There’s an opportunity there for Winston to prove his doubters wrong and for the Giants to start building momentum.
Right now, however, it’s notable that fan confidence has rebounded after the Giants’ win over the Titans.
Winning makes everything better, though some fans reacted to the Giants’ win over the Titans as though it was a loss. It’s true that the Giants very nearly lost a game they should have dominated against the Titans. However, there’s also something to be said for remaining resilient and finding ways to win even when you’re your own worst enemy.
That win, and perhaps the trade for McCarthy, seems to have heartened Giants’ fans despite losing Brian Burns for the year to a torn ACL.
Multiple Giants veterans admitted that the team would likely have lost that same game a year ago. We’ll just have to see if the team is able to use it as a stepping stone as they forge a path forward without Jaxson Dart and Brian Burns.
If they’re able to do so, we’ll see fan confidence continue to rise.
