He is not the Giants’ quarterback of the future.
He is also not (yet) the current Giants quarterback.
But JJ McCarthy is happy the Giants aren’t just part of his past anymore.
In his first interview since being acquired earlier this week for a fifth-round pick to be Jameis Winston’s backup with Jaxson Dart out for the season, McCarthy said it was a “shock” to be traded by the Vikings less than three seasons after being a first-round pick.
“I didn’t expect it,” McCarthy said, “but it’s an opportunity worth taking.”
Some shock gave way to reassurance when general manager Joe Schoen (who monitored McCarthy heavily, including during a visit to Top 30 facilities, ahead of the 2024 draft) and head coach John Harbaugh (whose brother Jim was McCarthy’s college coach) made calls to make him feel wanted.
“I loved this place from the second I walked in here,” McCarthy said after Friday’s practice. “Just being able to be here now, it’s come full circle. The (franchise) tradition is something I greatly appreciate.”
McCarthy, who was the Vikings’ third baseman after a 6-4 record last season, didn’t want to go into “the multitude of things you can think of” to explain why it didn’t work in Minnesota. Not when he has so much to learn to make up for lost time with the Giants offense.
“I feel really good,” McCarthy said. “Offensive football is basically the same concepts. It’s about cutting down on the verbiage, and I feel like I’m picking it up pretty quickly. I’m focusing on the next thing. Where I’ll finish is where I’ll finish when the time comes.”
Harbaugh has not yet decided whether McCarthy or Jake Haener will be the No. 2 quarterback Sunday against the Cardinals. Winston has taken the “majority” of the first team’s practice reps while Harbaugh tries to figure out “how can we use them?” McCarthy.
But it will be the mobile McCarthy and his 100-mile-per-hour fastball sooner rather than later — and it’s only a matter of time before he’s nipping at Winston’s heels if the offense continues to produce like it did during 19 touchdown-less possessions without Dart.
“It’s not something you can show up in an NFL building as a quarterback and be ready to play in a week,” quarterbacks coach Brian Callahan said, although Baker Mayfield and Joe Flacco are recent examples of players who have done just that. “It’s a challenge.
“But one week in the NFL is like five (elsewhere). As you accumulate those days, for a player who is smart and works at it, you have a chance to get up to speed pretty quickly. We’re going to push that as fast as we can. It’s up to him and how he takes it.”
The Callahan-McCarthy crash course meetings began with cadence, formations, moves and speed changes, then revisited the first day (and so on) of spring OTAs, which included running and pass protection facilities. Simultaneously, McCarthy receives the weekly game plan.
“He’s catching up on that background information and terms while he’s trying to piece together what we’re actually putting in place for the game plan,” Callahan said.
“Trying to close the gap between what we’ve been working on over the last six months and what we’re doing today. Then you start with the terminology of the passing game. Hours and hours and hours of that. It’s a race to see how much we can give him and how much he’s going to be able to keep.”
McCarthy apparently didn’t fit in in the Minnesota locker room, where he had to spend his rookie season with a torn meniscus (like Dart) while backup Sam Darnold led the team to a surprising 14-3 record. Then he lost a quarterback competition this offseason to Kyler Murray.
“That’s all in the past,” McCarthy said. “All I care about is what’s important now: this next rep, this next meeting, this next game.”
Here is his new beginning.
“Being in the league for almost two and a half years, who you are is who you are,” McCarthy said. “I’m just trying to be authentic because the locker room is going to find out. I’m just trying to do everything I can to let them know that I love this game, I’m going to work hard and I love the guys around me.”
McCarthy said he hasn’t heard from Jim Harbaugh since the trade, although Jim acknowledged John had called him beforehand to get information on the coach.
“I absolutely love the Harbaugh family,” McCarthy said. “They’re made of good things: faith, family, football. Everything he did in Baltimore was super inspiring. Being in this building, you can feel it. I’m excited to play for him.”
McCarthy’s first step is to establish a relationship with Winston.
“Being able to hear how he internalizes things,” McCarthy said, “there were some great conversations where I was like, ‘Wow, that’s how a real veteran does that.’ »
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