Neglect the draft.
ESPN draft guru Mel Kiper believes the Giants needs to be prepared to ship the No. 3 choose within the 2025 NFL Draft to the Vikings for injured rookie quarterback J.J. McCarthy.
Buying McCarthy, the No. 10 choose in final yr’s draft, would imply passing on this yr’s prime quarterback prospects in Colorado’s Shedeur Sanders, Miami’s Cam Ward and presumably Penn State’s Drew Allar, who may change course and enter the draft after a robust Faculty Soccer Playoff exhibiting.
“J.J. McCarthy is a year younger than Cam Ward and Shedeur Sanders, he’s coming off the (knee) injury, but he’s a kid, if you look at his grade last year compared to the grades this year of the quarterbacks, he would be the No. 1 guy, he would be ahead of Drew Allar, he would be ahead of certainly Cam and Shedeur,” Kiper stated on ESPN’s “Unsportsmanlike” on Thursday.
That the Giants may doubtlessly search a commerce to search out their franchise quarterback is a mirrored image of the lukewarm view of this yr’s draft class.
There are various views on Sanders, Ward and even Allar, who beforehand stated he’s returning to Completely happy Valley however has since seen his inventory rise with two playoff wins.
Simply because Sanders and Ward are one of the best signal-callers on this yr’s class doesn’t essentially imply they’re franchise quarterbacks and reaching for one in all them — assume Daniel Jones — may set a staff again.
It’s onerous to say whether or not each staff ranks McCarthy, 21, greater than any of this yr’s quarterbacks, however Kiper is just not the primary pundit to say final yr’s crop outranked this yr’s crew.
There’s additionally the fact that ought to Allar keep in class, the Giants could not have the choice to draft each Ward and Sanders for the reason that Titans (No. 1) and Browns (No. 2) each want quarterbacks.
There could possibly be a 3rd quarterback the Giants completely fall in love with however, as of early January, that participant seemingly is just not being mentioned nationally as a top-five choose.
Even when the Giants like McCarthy greater than this yr’s class, although, there are a number of elements that might doubtlessly derail any potential commerce.
At the start, the Giants had an opportunity to draft McCarthy final yr and handed.
Now, it’s actually attainable the Giants had receiver Malik Nabers rated as a greater participant.
However logic says a quarterback is extra important than a receiver, and so long as McCarthy’s grade was in the identical ballpark as Nabers’, a staff ought to at all times draft the quarterback.
The subsequent potential bugaboo is whether or not the Vikings wish to commerce McCarthy.
McCarthy, who led Michigan to the nationwide title final season, didn’t play a snap this season after tearing his meniscus and not too long ago underwent a second surgical procedure.
In his absence, former Jets bust Sam Darnold has flourished.
And that is the place it turns into difficult.
The Vikings clearly noticed McCarthy as a franchise quarterback by choosing him No. 10 general final April, however Darnold as an alternative delivered and has seemed the half.
It might be a tricky promote to a fan base to let Darnold stroll in free company after main Minnesota to the playoffs with a 14-3 file and switch over the reins to a participant coming off an harm.
Whereas some analysts liked McCarthy, his faculty stats didn’t bounce off the web page.
Kiper is within the camp that the Vikings could not actually know what they wish to do till their season concludes, which could possibly be as early as Monday once they go to the Rams.
Darnold raised some flags together with his exhibiting in Week 18 when he seemed like he had seen ghosts once more in a disastrous efficiency in opposition to the Lions that price Minnesota the NFC’s No. 1 seed.
“(The Vikings) only having a first and two fifths (picks), may say, ‘Hey, we can get three draft picks for J.J. McCarthy, maybe let’s do it,’ assuming Sam plays really well in the playoffs,” Kiper stated. “If he doesn’t, then obviously they’re keeping J.J. and letting it play out that way. Franchise him, keep J.J., move on from there, see how it plays out. I think J.J. McCarthy situation is going to be really interesting to see what happens there: do they keep him or do they trade him?”
He added: “I think this playoff situation coming up for Minnesota will determine everything about how they handle that quarterback situation.”
