Could the Giants trade for J.J. McCarthy?

The New York Giants find themselves in a precarious position. As things stand now, they don’t have a starting quarterback for the 2025 season — apologies to Tommy DeVito.

And after beating the Indianapolis Colts, they find themselves sitting at fourth overall in a draft which might only have two viable quarterback prospects. If the Giants want to draft either Cam Ward or Shedeur Sanders, they will likely have to strike a deal with the New England Patriots. They would not only have to jump the Tennessee Titans and Cleveland Browns, they’d have to out-bid the Las Vegas Raiders and whoever else wants the first pick in the draft.

But is there another option?

ESPN’s Adam Schefter was recently asked about the possibility that the Vikings could trade 2024 10th overall pick J.J. McCarthy, a player the Giants passed on at No. 6 in the draft.

And while Schefter added the caveat that the Vikings could have no interest trading McCarthy, there will be (or is) interest in him around the NFL.

“In a limited quarterback draft class, where there are far more teams that need quarterbacks than there are quarterbacks who can actually step in right away, I… definitely think teams will be checking in with the Vikings to see if they have any interest in trading J.J. McCarthy,” Schefter said.

“J.J. McCarthy would have been a top, if not the top, quarterback prospect in this draft.”

It isn’t exactly breaking news that teams check in with each other to see who might be available. But that Schefter is so sure that quarterback-needy teams will be calling to check on McCarthy doesn’t come from nowhere. Schefter doesn’t usually bring up possibilities out of thin air, so if he’s mentioning teams “definitely” calling with regards to McCarthy, there’s probably something to it.

Now, are the Giants among the teams who could (or are) calling about McCarthy? It’s certainly possible.

But the question is whether or not the Vikings would be willing to part with a player they just drafted to be a franchise quarterback, and whether or not the price would be too rich for the Giants’ liking.

“If the Vikings decide that they wanted to trade him they would get back everything they put into him, and then some. It would be a ‘one’ [first round pick] and then some,” Schefter said.

That, of course, means a first-round pick plus.

Raptor’s thoughts

Anything could happen, and the Vikings certainly seem like they want to re-sign Sam Darnold. That would make their calculations regarding McCarthy interesting, to say the least.

Darnold probably won’t want to sign a two-year contract that could make him expendable if McCarthy matures. On the other hand, the Vikings would need to protect themselves against Darnold regressing in 2025 and beyond. As well as he’s played this year, he has six prior years of poor play before that.

Likewise, the Vikings know that having two starting caliber quarterbacks saved their season. They’ve also gotten to see the Falcons nearly save their season by drafting Michael Penix, and the Steelers have success by acquiring both Russell Wilson and Justin Field. We could see the calculus regarding the quarterback position changing going forward and teams being less likely to part with good passers.

There’s also the fact that the Vikings were clearly sold on McCarthy as being their next franchise quarterback. They were sold enough to move up in order to draft him at 10th overall to ensure they got him. Though the price to move from 11th to 10th overall wasn’t exactly onerous (129th and 157th picks, and getting 210th), the commitment is the important part.

Schefter is right that if (and it’s a big “if”) the Vikings make McCarthy available, he would command a hefty price. Schefter says “a one and then some”, so it would cost the Giants’ first-round pick, likely a Day 2 pick, and potentially more. IF the Vikings make McCarthy available, they would almost certainly talk to the Patriots to find out what they’re asking for the first overall pick and base their price around that.

The Giants scouted McCarthy heavily. He was complimented on Hard Knocks for his football IQ and that John Harbaugh game him the freedom to audible at the line of scrimmage. Assistant GM Brandon Brown also mentioned that the decision to draft Malik Nabers rather than Michael Penix, McCarthy, or Bo Nix, was due to the belief that Nabers would do more to help the Giants “right now” than the quarterbacks.

Personally, I was impressed by McCarthy’s field vision, arm talent, and athleticism. I believe that he deserved to be mentioned in the same breath as Caleb Williams, Jayden Daniels, and Drake Maye as a prospect last year.

The Giants absolutely should call the Vikings to see if McCarthy is available, and if so what the cost would be. There’s a definite risk to trading for a player coming off of an injury and who also has limited experience carrying a team on his right arm. However, he likely has higher upside than any quarterback outside of Cam Ward — and perhaps even then he might have a higher ceiling.

The Giants absolutely need to find a long-term solution at quarterback. And it seems as though they might need to bite the bullet and make a deal to acquire one. Whether that means trading up for Cam Ward (or Shedeur Sanders), or trying to acquire McCarthy, there’s a price the Giants will have to pay to (try and) get out of Quarterback Hell.

They may never be able to find out just how good the rest of the team could be if they don’t get the most important position figured out.