The Giants have been discussing adding one or two quarterbacks to their roster since after Jaxson Dart went down with a regular season-ending knee injury, and they landed one on Monday.
Big Blue completed a deal to acquire former first-round pick J.J. McCarthy from the Vikings.
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Head coach John Harbaugh said they turned over every stone via free agency and the trade market before they were able to come to terms on an agreement with Minnesota early Monday morning.
“This opportunity kind of came up,” he explained. “We’re excited to add J.J. — he’s a young QB, comes with experience, was a very high draft pick and is a very talented player — he’s going to make us a stronger football team.”
McCarthy, according to Harbaugh, sat atop the recommendations from the Giants front office.
The long-time head coach was also plenty familiar with the youngster’s potential having watched plenty of his games while he was playing under his brother, Jim, collegiate at Michigan.
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It was there McCarthy enjoyed his best success, including a perfect championship-winning season.
While he wasn’t quite able to carry that over to begin his professional career with the Vikings, Harbaugh still believes that he possess some of that upside and potential.
“He’s a talented guy, there’s no doubt about it,” he emphasized. “He was a top-10 pick for a reason and there’s plenty of good tape, even in the NFL out there, I know he didn’t hold onto the job in Minnesota, and that’s why he’s available.
“I spent a lot of time looking at him last week along with a few other guys and I came away impressed. Our scouts had already done the work and I see the reports, and I would have to concur with the reports based on what I saw — he can run, he can throw it, he can make plays, we’ll see where it goes from here.”
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The Giants are hoping to get McCarthy into their building as soon as they can so that they can get to work with him and start the challenge of acclimating him to their offense.
While they do that, he’s is expected to slot in as the QB2 or QB3 with Jameis Winston remaining the starter.
“Jameis is our starting quarterback, that’s how we’re rolling,” Harbaugh declared. “We’ll be ready to play this next game and going forward, we’re excited about Jameis and we think that we’re going to find ourselves offensively.”
As far as the future? Harbaugh says Winston will remain the starter “for as long as I can see.”
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