The New York Giants acquired J.J. McCarthy a month ago to help offset the loss of star quarterback Jaxson Dart, who tore up his knee in Week 2 and is scheduled to miss the rest of the regular season.
Many saw the move as a flyer -- a shot in the dark on a player who played his way out of Minnesota and in no way could replace Dart for the Giants.
A month later, opinions are beginning to change. McCarthy has burst onto the scene, insinuated himself into the team's fabric, and is making Dart's offense his own. He has been explosive thus far and has rejuvenated the Giants and their hopes of salvaging what once appeared to be a lost season.
One analyst, Hall of Famer Kurt Warner of the NFL Network, isn't totally sold on McCarthy. He told Rich Eisen
this week that he needs to see more.
"I just don't think it was fair to make this judgment on J.J. McCarthy as quick as we did. If you go back to, you know, guys that talked about J.J. coming out of the draft, obviously great success at Michigan, but he was a complementary piece. He wasn't the guy that had to carry a team. He hadn't shown the ability to do all of that yet," Warner said.
"So, when you drafted him -- not that he shouldn't have been drafted where he was -- it was just this guy's going to take some time, in my opinion, if you're going to ask him to play the game differently than he did in Michigan. And the NFL's different than it is in college, and what they were asking him in Minnesota was different than what he was doing in college. And so, yeah, it didn't look great when he was out there. And that wasn't surprising to me.
"And then, obviously gets a new spot, and it has looked a little bit better here in New York, and they've won a football game. But I just felt like Minnesota gave up too quickly. And again, they see every week, they see every practice, they know what's there and why they made the decision. But I just think he needed time to grow and still needs time."
Giants fans want to see more, too. They are a bit skeptical since they've had nothing but hard luck the past dozen years. This can't be happening. Going from no franchise quarterbacks to two in a single year is hard to believe.
This article originally appeared on Giants Wire: Kurt Warner isn't sold on New York Giants QB J.J. McCarthy ... yet
