The Giants got quarterback J.J. McCarthy from the Minnesota Vikings this week, sending a 2027 fifth-round draft choice the other way in a move that gives them a passer with starting experience and first-round pedigree for relatively little cost. McCarthy, the 10th overall pick in the 2024 NFL Draft, now lands in New York after starting 10 games for Minnesota in 2025.
That search for help was already underway after Jaxson Dart went down with a knee injury and had surgery a week earlier, leaving the Giants to keep adjusting at the position. John Harbaugh said the club had been talking about adding a quarterback ever since Dart got hurt, and Jameis Winston is still set to make his 90th career start on Sunday and second in a row for the Giants.
McCarthy's numbers this season explain why the Giants were willing to make the call. In 10 starts, he completed 57.6 percent of his passes for 1,632 yards, 11 touchdowns and 12 interceptions. He also ran for 181 yards and four scores on 37 carries. That is the kind of uneven production that still comes with a young quarterback, but it also shows the kind of live game work New York was chasing when it made the deal.
The former rookie spent his first NFL season on injured reserve, then returned to play a full stretch of games in 2025. He is 6-4 as a starter, which is a simple way to count the record he built across those 10 games. For the Giants, the appeal is obvious: they gave up only a future fifth-round pick to add a quarterback who has already been through the grind of an NFL season and has shown he can win enough games to keep a team afloat.
There is still a catch. Harbaugh said the team had been turning over every stone and called the move an opportunity that came together late in the morning, but he also said the next step is learning the offense, and he made clear that will be a challenge. That leaves McCarthy with little time and a short runway before he can matter on the field, while the Giants keep Winston in place for Sunday and wait to see how quickly the new quarterback can catch up.
Seven Giants started the week on the injury report but were all cleared to play, a separate bit of relief on a roster that had already watched Brian Burns land on injured reserve after tearing an ACL late in last Sunday's win over the Titans. The transaction makes the quarterback room better on paper right away. Whether it does so soon enough is the real question now.
