The Giants’ quarterback search appears to have moved past the stage of vague speculation. According to a CBS Sports report, New York is making calls and believes a move could come as soon as Monday.
That is the clearest sign yet that the team is not simply browsing possibilities after Jaxson Dart’s season-ending knee injury. It is actively working through them.
J.J. McCarthy is one of the names now tied to that process, but the reporting around him is doing two different things at once: one report says he is officially a real trade possibility for the Giants, while another asks how realistic a trade actually is. That split captures the current state of the story. New York is clearly in the market for a quarterback. It is not yet clear that McCarthy is the one it will land.
McCarthy’s name has come up in NFL conversations since Dart was ruled out for the year. He had already been mentioned in multiple trade rumors after losing the battle for the Vikings’ QB1 job to Kyler Murray in the summer, which is part of why his name has surfaced so quickly again now that the Giants are searching.
The Giants are not treating this as a one-player search, either. CBS reported that the team is also considering free agents Jimmy Garoppolo and Gardner Minshew II, along with Mac Jones and Justin Fields. Another report added McCarthy to that list of quarterbacks New York is thinking about adding in the near future.
That broader list matters because the Giants’ draft position does not give them much room to wait around. They currently have no picks in the fourth round of the 2027 NFL Draft, two selections in the fifth round, and two in the sixth. If New York wants to solve the position before then, it may have to do it through a trade or another immediate move rather than by leaning on draft capital.
McCarthy is still the most intriguing name in the group because of where he sits in his career. He is 23 years old, and the Giants previously did extensive work on him during the pre-draft process in 2024. That background helps explain why his name keeps resurfacing now that the team is weighing its options.
It also helps explain why the Vikings’ stance matters. Head coach Kevin O’Connell has expressed the desire to continue developing McCarthy, which keeps the door open to Minnesota holding onto him rather than moving him. That is part of why the reports around him remain framed as possibility, not conclusion.
If the Giants are looking for a quarterback who could still be part of the roster after the 2026 season, McCarthy is viewed as the most natural fit among the names being discussed. But that is still a conditional answer, not a finished transaction.
For now, the most concrete development is not that McCarthy is headed to New York. It is that the Giants are making calls, the search is active, and a decision may be close.