The New York Giants were transparent about their need for another quarterback after Jaxson Dart's season-ending knee injury. As beloved as Jameis Winston is, Big Blue needed to add some competition to the QB room, at the very least.
Their answer? Trade for J.J. McCarthy, who had fallen out of favor with the Minnesota Vikings. McCarthy's chaotic play style lost him his starting spot, even pushing him to third in Minnesota's QB pecking order. In essence, the Giants are replacing chaos with … younger chaos.
Even if McCarthy finds a way to turn his career around in New York, he wasn't the kind of quarterback that the Giants needed to bring in.
J.J. McCarthy isn't the QB answer the Giants needed
Winston wasn't cutting it. In his two games at the helm, the Giants failed to score a touchdown, instead relying on six field goals from Dominic Zvada as their scoring output. Winston's completion rate of 51% currently ranks last in the NFL among quarterbacks with at least 25 attempts. His style of play was never going to be sustainable.
But McCarthy isn't the answer to that problem. He's just as chaotic under center as Winston is, if not moreso. Last season, he logged a completion rate of 57.6% and threw more interceptions (12) than touchdowns (11).
Sure, he led a couple of game-winning drives for the Vikings, but he consistently hamstrung one of the most talented offenses in the league with inexplicable decisions. Even with a year of preparation under Kevin O'Connell, he looked lost whenever his first read wasn't available.
Given his inability to give the Vikings functional QB play, it's hard to belive that he'll pick Matt Nagy's system up in time to make an impact. If he wins the starting job, McCarthy is more likely to lose games for the Giants than he is to win them.
Of course, we're rooting for McCarthy to resurrect his career in New York. But even if he does, the best possible scenario is that the Giants trade him away next offseason. There isn't a realistic outcome where Dart isn't the starter when he returns. For a situation with very little long-term upside, it doesn't make much sense to target a young player.
The Giants would have been better suited adding a proven veteran like Joe Flacco or Gardner Minshew to the mix. No, those names aren't as intriguing as McCarthy's, but they could quickly step in and lead the offense to competence. With McCarthy, there's a much higher risk of disaster.
Reports from the weekend indicated that the Giants were looking to bring two quarterbacks in, so there's still the potential of a veteran addition.
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