J.J. McCarthy used the New York Giants’ bye week to close the remaining gaps in the offensive playbook after his first start against Houston.
The downtime gave him consecutive days of meetings, tape study, and on-field work with Matt Nagy and the rest of the offensive staff, leaving him more comfortable operating the full menu heading into Sunday’s road game against the Philadelphia Eagles.
“Yeah, the bye week came at a great time,” McCarthy told reporters on Wednesday. “I definitely feel caught up completely with our offense and the intent behind every single play. And that’s a credit to all the guys in the room with me, all the coaches, and everyone on this team. They’ve helped me out so much, and I’m extremely blessed to be able to take advantage
of this downtime that we had and really work on the mental game and make sure we’re caught up and definitely feel like I’m in a really good spot in terms of operating this offense.”
Head coach John Harbaugh echoed that assessment after the team returned from the break. He noted that McCarthy has now had multiple full practices since the Houston game and is ready for whatever the game plan requires.
“I would say he’s at the stage now where he’s pretty much caught up, at least in terms of anything that we’d be doing in the game plan,” Harbaugh said. “He’ll be as fully prepared as any quarterback would be at this stage.”
McCarthy spent much of the extra time in the building reviewing training-camp film and individual route concepts that are more feel than diagram. He also worked directly with the skill players, including tight end Isaiah Likely, on how they see zone coverage, leverage, and man-to-man assignments.
“For sure, communication with Matt and Greg [Roman] and just being able to be in the building and turn on the tape and watch all the training camp, individual routes that might be more feel than lines on a page, and just kind of getting on the same page with Zay, getting on the same page with all the other guys,” McCarthy said. “But really just watching what they do and adapting to them. At the end of the day, it was a big week of just focusing on Philly as well.”
Harbaugh also pointed to McCarthy’s experience in large college environments and meaningful NFL games as a reason the external noise in Philadelphia should not be a factor. Both the coach and quarterback said the focus remains on the Giants’ own operation and execution against a familiar division opponent.
This article originally appeared on Giants Wire: J.J. McCarthy feels fully caught up on Giants offense after bye week
