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Giants’ J.J. McCarthy Hype Draws Blunt Take After Vikings Trade
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- Giants’ J.J. McCarthy Hype Draws Blunt Take After Vikings Trade
(Photo by Caleb Bowlin/Getty Images) Getty
The Minnesota Vikings decided to cut ties with J.J. McCarthy midway through the season, trading their former first-round pick to the New York Giants for a 2027 fifth-round pick. Nonetheless, McCarthy has responded well to the change of scenery.
McCarthy has taken over the starting QB job from Jameis Winston, as he has a passer rating of 95.2 with 495 yards, one touchdown, and one interception in his last two games with the Giants, per StatMuse.
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As a result, there are some questioning the Vikings' decision to trade McCarthy in what technically is his second season, given that an injury caused him to miss the 2024 campaign.
Nonetheless, despite his impressive last two games, former NFL QB Donovan McNabb stated that he isn't buying the McCarthy hype just yet.
"John [Harbaugh] has incorporated this into what he's doing with the Giants," McNabb said during a Nov. 2 appearance on "Up & Adams." "It's a run-first approach, running the football downhill with mid-zone and inside-zone concepts. It's the quick game, along with boots and nakeds to get him outside the pocket.
"So now he looks efficient when he's connecting on slants, hitches, quick outs, or curls, and occasionally you might get a deep ball up the middle against Cover 2 or something like that.
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"Everybody's saying, 'Oh, he's rolling.' But until you start blitzing him and stopping the run, you force the ball to be in his hands and decisions to be made. That's when you'll see the J.J. McCarthy we've seen throughout his first couple of years in Minnesota."
Why J.J. McCarthy Is Having Success After Vikings Trade?
Moreover, McNabb credits McCarthy's success in New York to being in a system that he's familiar with and with the Giants not asking him to do too much.
"He was in a system, a West Coast system, where he was asked to manage the game at Michigan," McNabb added. "He had a great running game and utilized the quick game and intermediate game. The thing that boosted him, so to speak, was his mobility and his ability to get outside the pocket and scramble when needed.
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"He's not Lamar Jackson or anybody like that, but he's serviceable when it comes to getting outside the pocket. What you're seeing is the type of offense he ran under Jim Harbaugh."
Giants GM Explains Reason for J.J. McCarthy Trade
Recently, Giants general manager Joe Schoen explained in an Oct. 29 video from "Move the Sticks with Daniel Jeremiah," why they wanted McCarthy and felt comfortable trading a Day 3 pick to the Vikings.
"We were able to spend a lot of time with J.J. leading up to the draft and got to know him on a personal level," Schoen told NFL Network's Daniel Jeremiah . "Obviously, we put him through the wringer on the board, the mental part, and the physical part. He had probably one of the best private workouts I've ever been around, just in terms of pure arm strength.
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"That obviously helped lead to the decision when we were looking for somebody. He was third on the depth chart there in Minnesota. Carson Wentz was playing when Kyler was hurt. So we knew there may be an opportunity for a team to trade their third quarterback."
This article was originally published on HEAVY
The post Giants' J.J. McCarthy Hype Draws Blunt Take After Vikings Trade appeared first on HEAVY .
