The Minnesota Vikings traded quarterback JJ McCarthy to the New York Giants on Monday for a 2027 fifth-round draft pick.
Why did they make the move?
Giants quarterback Jaxson Dart is out for the regular season after undergoing knee surgery last week, and Jameis Winston’s ceiling quickly revealed its limits with two underwhelming performances in which he failed to lead New York into the end zone. First-year coach John Harbaugh, whose brother Jim coached McCarthy at Michigan, can still lay the foundation for the future, and it’s important to address QB uncertainties while there’s plenty of time to do so.
The Giants are 2-1, and while their odds of making the playoffs are slim without Dart, as well as star pass rusher Brian Burns — who is believed to have torn his ACL on Sunday —, Harbaugh is clearly not ready to throw in the towel on the 2026 campaign.
Meanwhile, the Vikings traded up to pick McCarthy in the first round in 2024, but he has yet to get off the ground floor due to injuries and inconsistent performance. After Kyler Murray won the QB competition early in training camp, it became apparent that McCarthy’s days in Minnesota were numbered when the Vikings opted to make Carson Wentz McCarthy’s backup.
Giants trade grade: C+
It’s a tall order for any quarterback to join a team after the start of the regular season, especially one with little experience. McCarthy has never mastered Vikings coach Kevin O’Connell’s user-friendly offense, so it’s fair to doubt that the QB will find practice with the Giants while trying to learn a new scheme on the fly.
Of course, McCarthy was a first-round pick for a reason, so it’s at least plausible that the Giants are a better fit for his game. The Giants scouted McCarthy extensively during the 2024 pre-draft process before taking wide receiver Malik Nabers with the sixth pick instead. That was before Harbaugh’s time in New York, of course, but general manager Joe Schoen was with the team, so he should be familiar with the pros and cons of McCarthy’s game.
McCarthy certainly wouldn’t be the first high pick to flame out of his original team and find success elsewhere. And if Winston doesn’t show improvement, the Giants now have another quarterback who brings some semblance of hope for the future.
Vikings trade grade: B-
General manager Nolan Teasley, who was hired in June, didn’t draft McCarthy, so it’s time to assess McCarthy’s value to the organization. Has McCarthy made more sense as a backup who could still be a starter someday, or is it time to end the project and flip him for a pick?
Unless McCarthy plays – and plays well – this season, his trade value will continue to depreciate. Next offseason, he likely falls into the pick-swap category. By moving him during the season, Teasley capitalized on another team’s desperation.
In the end, McCarthy ended up being a bust of a pick by the Vikings, but they didn’t let him become a total sunk cost. Instead, they got what they could and moved on from a player who seemed too long to live up to the draft price in their organization.