The flier that the New York Giants took on JJ McCarthy is already starting to look like a headliner.
Written off by the Minnesota Vikings, the 23-year-old quarterback is looking like Jaxson Dart 2.0 in the starter’s absence after suffering a season-ending knee injury in Week 2. The Giants flipped a fifth-round pick for McCarthy in late September, and within three weeks, he usurped Jameis Winston for the starting job.
After passing for 243 yards in a fourth-quarter frenzied comeback attempt last week against the Saints, McCarthy’s first start with the Giants could not have gone much better in Sunday’s 27-21 overtime win over the Houston Texans: 20-of-28 passing, 252 yards, and the directing of four touchdown drives (it should have been six scoring drives, but kicker Dominic Zvada missed two field goals).
“There were no procedural penalties. We had no issues with the clock running down. We had no formation issues. All the checks were made really well,” head coach John Harbaugh said. “I thought he did a great job. He’s not a guy that’s never played before, so he’s young, but he’s played. And he showed it. He showed it. He made throws. I’m sure he didn’t play perfect, but he played a heck of a football game, and he deserves a lot of credit.”
While Jameis Winston has performed admirably as Dart’s replacement for a month, McCarthy’s game is simply a better fit for the Giants’ offense. The Michigan product is more athletic, can extend plays with his legs, and can make throws while disturbed in the pocket.
He became the first Giants quarterback since Eli Manning in 2011 to complete two 40-plus-yard passes in a single quarter, doing so to Malik Nabers and Malachi Fields in the first frame.
He looked like a traditional pocket passer in both of those. His 42-yard strike to Nabers found the star receiver down the right sideline to set up the Giants’ opening touchdown of the afternoon. Then, from his own 16-yard line, he delivered a thunderbolt through tight coverage for an intermediate completion to the rookie Fields, who turned it upfield and gained 47 yards.
“Preparation,” McCarthy said when asked how he could make a throw like that to Fields. “I feel like preparation, over the years of playing football, you just refine the routine each and every week, and I feel like I’m in a really good spot right now, just Monday through Saturday and just being able to have that trust in these guys as early as now, since I’ve been here. I haven’t been here long, but I trust those guys every time the ball comes out of my hand. I trust the offensive line up front. I trust the backs are going to get us in great situations when I do hit the checkdowns, but at the end of the day, it’s the players around me.”
McCarthy showed off the athleticism that allows him to make difficult throws look almost pedestrian. His best came in the final minute in the second quarter of a 14-14 game, dropping in a perfectly layered throw off his back foot down the left sideline to Nabers for 27 yards.
….man what https://t.co/otVSyuEIta
— Mina Kimes (@minakimes) October 25, 2026
“Football is football,” he continued. “At the end of the day, there’s a lot of similar concepts in every single scheme in the NFL and even going to college. But I just give so much credit to the coaches, Jameis and [third-string quarterback JakeHaener], and Jaxson for helping me out the second I walked in the door. All credit goes to everyone in that building for helping me get prepared for this game.”
This is developing into quite the renaissance for McCarthy, who battled injuries and spotty play before losing out on the starting job in Minnesota to Kyler Murray during the preseason. It was a swift fall from grace. He was the No. 10 overall pick of the draft just two years ago, went down with a season-ending injury, then failed to reward Minnesota’s confidence last year after moving on from Sam Darnold, who won 14 games with them in 2025.
While the Vikings missed the playoffs last year, Darnold won a Super Bowl with the Seattle Seahawks. Then, in the preseason, McCarthy lost his starting job for good to Kyler Murray before getting flipped for that late-round draft pick.
“Guys have scars. He has scars. He’s been wounded. He’s been broken. He’s been battered. But you heal stronger, and you become better because of it,” Harbaugh said. “So he should be grateful. OK, I won a National Championship, got a high pick for the Minnesota Vikings, was the guy after they let the veteran quarterback go to Seattle, fought my way through, but it ended up not working out for me, got benched, got ridiculed, got traded. Got traded, good. Good on every single one of those counts because it’s made me stronger. It’s made me who I am if I’m of the character to
understand that. That’s how life works. That’s why I love football as a metaphor for life, for kids watching. That’s a lesson for everybody. Failure is not final… To me, that just shows who he is as a man, as a young man”
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