It's been three weeks since the New York Giants traded for quarterback J.J. McCarthy. Initially, the hope was that he could provide a change-up to the new starter, Jameis Winston, and run some of the offense designed for Jaxson Dart, who is out for the season with a knee injury.
So far, McCarthy has appeared in one game -- five plays to be exact -- and the results were not impressive. McCarthy isn't entirely to blame, however. The plays he was given were all gadgety run plays that the Washington Commanders easily stamped out.
Every play of the Giants JJ McCarthy package pic.twitter.com/aXKdM64YP5
— Bobby Skinner (@BobbySkinner_) October 13, 2026
McCarthy did not throw a forward pass and ran twice for a net total of two yards. The plays came at different intervals of the game. This week, head coach
John Harbaugh was asked what benefit putting McCarthy into the game as such has.
"The benefits of it? It's a change of pace," he told reporters. "What you saw is probably not all we have for him right now. Whether or not he's out there or not will be determined based on whatever happens. But we'll see if it's something that can help us. One thing about it, to me, it's like, what's the benefit of not doing everything you can to use all the guys you have? We're always going to be searching for opportunities to use our players, give them an opportunity to help us win games. I think we'd be negligent if we didn't try to do that."
Offensive coordinator Matt Nagy agreed that the goal is to create a change of pace, but it's too early to really tell how and where the team can take this.
"There's three plays that we had him in there where it's the old 'if' thing," said Nagy. "We had one piece of the play that was just off a little bit. One of them was the penalty, right? Then there's two other plays that we had that could have been really big plays, and they weren't for one reason. And so, without getting into the scheme part of it, we've told the guys and we've told J.J., like, ‘Listen, you're doing what you're supposed to do. We like that package.’ We can't be predictable with it when we use him and when we're going to do it, but he needs to stay with it.
"That can be an advantage for us. So, how are we going to make that an advantage? And then when we get out there, and he gets out there, what are the things that we're going to do with him? And we're only in Week 2. We're going into Week 3 with him, so we'll continue to see where that's at. In the meantime, we don't want to lose sight that he needs to learn this offense as a quarterback, not as a package guy. That's very important. So, we're trying to keep that going, too, to where he can understand that. But you've got to be careful with how many reps you take away from him Jameis."
And that is another issue. Winston is playing well. He has tossed six touchdowns over the past two games while registering QB ratings of 96.7 and 95.5. The Giants might want to be careful about tinkering with him as he appears to be getting more comfortable.
This article originally appeared on Giants Wire: Giants sticking with J.J. McCarthy package, and his role could grow
