Having J.J. McCarthy as the starting quarterback allows the New York Giants to run nearly the entire offense they installed during the preseason, when Jaxson Dart was the starter, offensive coordinator Matt Nagy said Thursday.
Like Dart, McCarthy is a mobile quarterback. With McCarthy now in the starting role, Nagy can restore most of the elements that were removed when the Giants replaced Dart with veteran pocket passer Jameis Winston following Dart’s season-ending knee injury last month.
“I think for us, and I know for us going into this thing, knowing what we wanted to do with Jaxson’s ability and his traits, him and Jameis are very different, and that’s OK. Now, coming into this thing with J.J., you get to a point where his skill set is very similar to Jaxson,” Nagy said. “So, it’s like, OK, it brings back — we talked about percentages the first time we were here, right? You talked about whether it’s 30 percent of the offense is gone. Well, maybe now 20 percent of that 30 that was gone is back.”
The Giants (3-2-1) benched Winston in favor of McCarthy on Sunday after falling behind 34-10 against the New Orleans Saints. McCarthy led three scoring drives in the fourth quarter against New Orleans’ prevent defense before driving New York to the Saints’ 14-yard line in the final seconds. The Giants turned the ball over on downs to end the rally.
The third-year pro completed 11 of 21 passes for 234 yards, with one touchdown and one interception. He also rushed for 26 yards on two carries.
“When you’re down 24 points, they’re going to naturally, most defenses, play a little bit more prevent/soft defense. We understand that, but there’s still a lot of throws within that game in the fourth quarter where he made some really impressive throws,” Nagy said.
McCarthy’s ability to throw and run gives Nagy more options. Previously, when McCarthy entered as Winston’s backup, defenses could anticipate a quarterback run.
“Now that he’s the quarterback and the starter, it probably benefits us some that he’s just not always coming in to do predictable QB-driven runs,” Nagy said.
McCarthy is still learning the offense after the Giants acquired him from the Minnesota Vikings for a 2027 fifth-round draft pick on Sept. 28. New York brought in the 2024 first-round pick (10th overall) after Dart’s injury.
McCarthy will face his first true test Sunday when the Giants travel to Houston to take on the Texans (2-4), who are coming off a 34-31 win over the Jacksonville Jaguars in London.