New York Giants quarterback Jameis Winston, one of the league’s best veteran backups, is playing well enough to keep the Giants at 2-0-1 since taking over as the starter for the injured Jaxson Dart.
But some skeptics still believe it’s only a matter of time before Winston is benched in favor of J.J. McCarthy, whom the Giants acquired in a trade with the Minnesota Vikings a couple of weeks ago.
Speculation has intensified after Giants head coach John Harbaugh not only acknowledged that a package of plays was ready for McCarthy just one week into the quarterback’s tenure with the team, but also said McCarthy saw the field for a handful of snaps Sunday.
Does that mean Winston is officially on notice that he will be pulled from the lineup the moment he has a bad game?
“I don’t see a scenario anytime soon in which J.J. is playing,” NFL insider Jordan Schultz told the Locked On Giants podcast.
“I think as long as Jameis continues to play well, it’ll be a minute before J.J.’s on the field.”
Winston, a team captain and member of the eight-player leadership council, is highly respected in the locker room. He has also drawn praise from Harbaugh and offensive coordinator Matt Nagy, both of whom, at least for now, are willing to take the good with the bad.
So why trade for McCarthy, the No. 10 overall pick in the 2024 draft? What’s the plan for him going forward? And is there a world in which McCarthy might actually challenge Dart for the starting job?
“Dart’s the guy, and they want him to be the guy for the next decade,” Schultz said. “There was a misconception, I think, nationally about the McCarthy trade. They did not trade for J.J. McCarthy to supplant Jameis Winston. They traded for him because the price had dropped significantly.
“Jim and John Harbaugh had multiple conversations about the type of person and player he can be. As he explained to me, John Harbaugh loved [McCarthy’s] hockey background, his toughness, and much of the winning he did at Michigan. But he’s not going to be the starter.”
Jim Harbaugh, John’s brother, coached McCarthy at Michigan.
McCarthy, according to Schultz, is additional insurance in case the injury bug hits the Giants’ quarterback room again. However, the league insider acknowledged that if the wheels fall off on the Giants offense with Winston under center, things could change.
For now, the Giants are simply evaluating what they have in McCarthy, who has a positive relationship with Nagy.
“They do wanna see whether or not someone drafted that high and that young is capable of being a backup or even a starter at some point,” Schultz said, adding that there could be more sightings of McCarthy on the field “in certain situations.”
But not as a starter, at least not for the immediate future.
“That would really surprise me,” Schultz said. “If Jameis were to play really badly in a couple of weeks in a row and they lost two in a row, I think it’s a different conversation. I don’t really expect that to happen.
“Not only did they sign Jameis, but they extended him, and they gave him real money in a two-year extension. And that was, I think, a manifestation of how they feel about him, knowing that if he did need to start and play, he could win them football games.”
“There is a lot more unknown about McCarthy than Jameis,” he continued. “I think McCarthy will play at some point, but I’m thinking more of a supplemental role.”
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