The Giants Gave Up a Fifth-Round Pick for J.J. McCarthy. He Is Starting Sunday in Houston.
The New York Giants are 3-2-1, alone in first place in the NFC East, and they are changing quarterbacks. ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler reported Wednesday that J.J. McCarthy will start Sunday at Houston, and the team’s own site confirmed within hours that head coach John Harbaugh had named him the starter after practice. Jameis Winston goes back to the bench.
Three weeks ago McCarthy was a Minnesota castoff. The Giants gave up a 2027 fifth-round pick for him on Sept. 28, after Jaxson Dart’s knee injury ended the rookie’s season in Week 2 and after Kyler Murray beat McCarthy out for the Vikings job. A fifth-rounder is the price of a long snapper with upside. It just bought a starting quarterback in a division race.
What McCarthy actually did
He played about 11 minutes of real football. Harbaugh pulled Winston early in the fourth quarter of Sunday’s 34-27 loss to New Orleans, down 24 points after Winston’s second interception, and McCarthy went 11-for-21 for 243 yards with a touchdown and a pick. He also led the Giants in rushing that day with 26 yards, including a 28-yard scramble.
That is a garbage-time stat line. It was also all the evidence Harbaugh needed, because the problem was never that Winston could not throw. Winston’s season: four starts, a 2-1-1 record, 90-for-158 for 957 yards, seven touchdowns, five interceptions. He threw for 326 yards and three scores at Washington in Week 5. He also threw for 111 yards against the Rams and 118 against Tennessee.
Harbaugh’s explanation on Monday was about the offense rather than the man. “It’s not balanced,” he said. “Is it enough to run your offense? And that’s something that we have been grappling with.” The Giants rank 19th in rushing at 104.8 yards a game, and against New Orleans their three running backs combined for 34 yards on 14 carries. Harbaugh wants to run the ball, and he wants a quarterback whose legs are part of the run game.
The Harbaugh family angle is not a coincidence
McCarthy won a national championship at Michigan playing for Jim Harbaugh, John’s younger brother. John Harbaugh took the Giants job in January. The front office then spent almost nothing to acquire a 23-year-old first-round quarterback who runs the exact offense the head coach’s family has been running for two decades. Call that whatever you want. It is not an accident.
His resume is thinner than people remember. McCarthy was the 10th pick in 2024 and missed his entire rookie year with a right knee injury. His one real season, 2025 in Minnesota, was 10 starts, a 6-4 record, 57.6 percent completions, 1,632 yards, 11 touchdowns and 12 interceptions. Career: 12 appearances, 1,875 yards, 12 touchdowns, 13 interceptions.
Sunday is a rough week to find out
Houston is 2-4 but has won two straight, including a 34-31 win over Jacksonville in London. C.J. Stroud has nine touchdowns and one interception. The Texans are favored by more than a touchdown. Kickoff is 1 p.m. ET in Houston, and the Giants get a bye the following week.
Winston handled it the way he has handled everything in New York. “That’s him, that’s a decision that he’ll have to make,” he said of Harbaugh on Monday. Of McCarthy: “He was able to rally us up, and he did a great job.” Russell Wilson, who got benched by this same franchise last season and now works for CBS, said the Giants owed Winston one more shot. He would know exactly how short the leash is.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.
