Even if he took one of them away, they wouldn’t need him any time soon.
So identifying the most NFL-ready quarterback in the 2024 NFL Draft isn’t a task the Giants need an ace on.
The appeal of the league these days is experience — look at how many games this guy has played! — but the Giants don’t have to follow the crowd on this one.
If they are going to use their fairly high first round pick (No. 6 overall) to find the next leader for their offense and team, they should look beyond 2024 and see what they see a year from now. We could try to predict it. Two things now.
The Giants have Daniel Jones back from anterior cruciate ligament surgery and will be the starter for Opening Day if healthy.
Drew Lock was signed as a backup.
Tommy DeVito still exists.
New players added to the roster are not asked to do anything other than adapt, learn, observe and grow in the NFL.
And sit down.
If this leads the Giants to JJ McCarthy, so be it.
At 21, he is the youngest of the top quarterbacks in this class, six months younger than Drake Maye, who is also 21. And at Michigan, where McCarthy went 27-1 behind center, he was rarely the centerpiece.
Why were the Giants able to confidently hand over control to McCarthy when Jim Harbaugh chose to feature a run and pass attack rather than McCarthy?
That’s why McCarthy is harder to evaluate than any other quarterback in this draft.
Others took over the game with their skill at times.
McCarthy gave the ball away so often that it was tempting to see if the forward pass was abolished in Ann Arbor.
Of course, no one disputes the results.
Last season, the Wolverines went 15-0 and won the national championship.
This is why investigating Mr. McCarthy is in many ways more labor-intensive than delving into others.
In keeping with that, McCarthy impressed at his pro day last Friday, but that was entirely predictable given how predetermined and user-friendly these on-campus events tend to be.
The Giants sent assistant general manager Brandon Brown and quarterbacks coach and passing game coordinator Shay Tierney for an in-person meeting.
They also had McCarthy (and Maye) visit Top 30 facilities and meet with Jaden Daniels and Bo Nix.
General manager Joe Schon and director of player personnel Tim McDonnell attended Caleb Williams’ pro day at USC.
The Giants checked in on McCarthy at the Senior Bowl and the NFL Scouting Combine.
They’ll know everything there is to know about all these quarterbacks.
McCarthy will turn 22 on January 20, 2025, meaning he will play the full 2024 NFL season at age 21.
He had time to get bigger and stronger without ever being knocked down.
Of course, he made NFL-type throws in college, but he didn’t attempt as many throws as other quarterbacks in this class based on the nature of the Wolverines’ run-first and run-second offenses.
Nix, 24, threw a combined 1,936 passes at Auburn and Oregon.
Michael Penix Jr., 23, threw 1,685 passes at Indiana and Washington State.
Daniels, 23, attempted 1,438 passes at LSU. Williams, 22, threw 1,099 passes at USC.
Maye threw 952 passes at the University of North Carolina. McCarthy threw just 713 passes against Michigan.
Nix leads the way with 108 touchdown passes, followed by Penix (96), Williams (93), Daniels (89) and Maye (63).
Unsurprisingly, McCarthy is well off the pace at 49.
Whoever hands McCarthy a ticket in the first round will likely make the decision based on what he can do, not what he did.
The Giants don’t have much of a recent history of acquiring and stashing quarterbacks.
Eli Manning in 2004 sat behind Kurt Warner for the first nine games before his NFL career began.
When Daniel Jones was selected No. 6 overall in the 2019 draft, Manning knew his time was running out.
But Manning was disappointed when he was benched after an 0-2 start that season, which ended up being his 16th and final year with the Giants.
A month ago, it seemed like the team might wait for McCarthy and possibly trade up to the bottom of the first round to acquire him.
Unless all the noise around him is smoke and fire, I have a feeling McCarthy won’t be out of the top 10 — and maybe not even No. 6.
At least this much: If the Giants take the plunge and acquire a quarterback, they’ll have time to develop him.
