Want some Giants conspiracy theories? Well how about this: Big Blue, selecting at No. 6, is going to select Michigan QB JJ McCarthy as their next signal-caller, because John Mara loves guys like him.
“Names have changed, the years have gone by, but the Giants are gonna do the same exact thing that they did when they drafted Daniel Jones,” Gio said. “They're gonna reach for JJ McCarthy, and we're gonna be sitting saying they could have traded back for him like we did with Daniel Jones, and then McCarthy is gonna be the quarterback for the Giants and that's gonna be the end of Brian Daboll and Joe Schoen.”
Yup, all lining up in Gio’s mind.
“It is all lining up; he is rocketing up the draft boards and is the Giants quarterback that we've all seen. John Mara loves Eli Manning and Daniel Jones, and JJ McCarthy is that guy – and Brian Daboll and Joe Schoen know they need to draft their guy,” Gio said. “They're not gonna get one of the Top 3, and McCarthy will be there for them, and then some other team out there is gonna convince them that ‘if you trade back, we're gonna go up and get him,’ just like when Dave Gettleman reached for Daniel Jones. It's gonna happen again. I know for a fact that the Giants love this kid, and if they love him, that means that they don't care where they select him, and they can sit there and not trade back and draft JJ McCarthy. Here we go again, round and round on the hamster wheel of turds.”
Boomer doesn’t think Jones nor McCarthy belong on the wheel – even if Gio says “Jones is the one who built the hamster wheel” – but Boomer is a little higher.
“The hamster wheel of turds are guys that don't show up with their shoes the first day of practice, not guys that actually care and put everything they got into becoming the football player that they are,” Boomer said, referencing our old pal Yung Joka. “One thing I can tell you about McCarthy, he’s not overly impressive, I would say, because he wasn't asked to do that much at Michigan. I think he threw like a third of the passes in college that Bo Nix threw, but he’s a winner with winning DNA, which goes all the way back to high school, and he can run a little bit.”
That’s huge in a Brian Daboll/Mike Kafka offense, as we saw with Jones in 2022 and Josh Allen in Buffalo – and besides, McCarthy might have a year to learn.
“I would imagine whoever the Giants draft is going to sit, he is not going to play, because Daniel Jones is going to be their quarterback to start the season,” Boomer said.
“Until he hurts his neck again or hurts his knee again, or his back, and then all of a sudden, there’s no way they can’t put him in,” Gio replid. “The Tommy DeVito stuff will have calmed down by then, and McCarthy will be the guy that gets thrown right in there because there's pressure to do it.”
And if that happens? Well, Troy Aikman and Peyton Manning went from terrible rookies to the Hall of Fame, so…
“Eventually, he will get it, but we’ve been down this road a thousand times – not every kid is ready to take the ball and go out there and be CJ Stroud or Dan Marino,” Boomer said. “But, there is that thought process in the NFL to go out there and play the guy. So yes, I understand and see the stereotypical Giants quarterback, and see why you would say that.”
“I mean, John Mara loves this kid. You think you love him? If he could have JJ McCarthy move into his home and make him like a de facto sort of Mara grandson, he would,” Gio shot back, somewhat hyperbolically. “Evertything about this guy: the way he talks, the way he smells, the way he looks, the way he throws, the way he leads. And I think after Eli Manning and Daniel Jones, JJ McCarthy has a little edge to him, and that makes him even more appealing.”
And then, the ultimate line from Gio:
“Mara is walking around that building, pinning up pictures of JJ McCarthy all around the facility like you did with Farrah Fawcett and Cheryl Ladd. That is JJ McCarthy right now: he is John Mara's pin-up girl.”