JJ McCarthy Could Help Giants 'Bring Back' Offense Built for Dart
Updated: 12 minutes ago
Published Oct 20, 2026, 10:09 AM ET | By Vincent Rapisardi
JJ McCarthy may give the Giants more than a new starting quarterback. ESPN's Jordan Raanan says people inside the organization told him the offense built for the injured Jaxson Dart was largely shelved, and that McCarthy's skill set would let New York restore it before Sunday's game at Houston.
"Yeah, we had this offense designed for Jaxson [Dart]. ... We basically had to scrap a lot of it," Raanan said he was told, speaking on his Breaking Big Blue podcast in comments shared by Big Blue Film Room on X.
Raanan added that McCarthy's skill set would allow the Giants to "bring back that offense," something they cannot do with Jameis Winston. The Giants had not named a Week 7 starter as of Tuesday morning.
The offense in question leaned on the quarterback as a runner.
In his breakdown of the decision for ESPN, Raanan wrote that the Giants designed an offense for Dart "filled with zone-reads and quarterback rollouts," concepts better suited to McCarthy's game than Winston's. Dart's season ended with a knee injury in Week 2, and Winston has made the four starts since.
The Offense the Giants Built for Jaxson Dart
In August, quarterbacks coach Brian Callahan said the Giants would keep Dart in the shotgun with "all the RPO [run, pass, option] game that goes with it," as we covered in Jaxson Dart Keeps Shotgun, RPO Game in Giants Offense, Callahan Says.
As a rookie, Dart ran for 487 yards and nine touchdowns, the most rushing scores by a quarterback in a season in Giants history.
On a zone read, the quarterback watches an unblocked defender and either hands off or keeps the ball, forcing the defense to account for him. A pocket passer removes that threat. Without it, New York has averaged 3.8 yards per carry over the past four games, 22nd in the NFL, according to ESPN.
Losing Dart, John Harbaugh said Monday, "changed everything."
Why JJ McCarthy Fits the Giants' Original Plan
Harbaugh did not dispute the premise. Asked how McCarthy could help the run game, he said that "if we go that way, that opens up some things that we wouldn't be doing with Jameis, for sure," and called McCarthy "definitely a better runner, scrambler," according to the team's press conference transcript.
He pointed to "some of the read plays and some of the different things you can do moving the quarterback around."
The Giants have tested a small version. McCarthy was on the field for three plays in Week 5 and ran twice, according to NBC Sports, and Raanan said last week that "we haven't seen it all yet" from the packages planned for him.
Jordan Raanan says "we haven't seen it all yet" in regard to JJ McCarthy and the different packages the Giants have planned for him. — Big Blue Film Room (@BigBlueFilmRoom) on X, October 16, 2026
The caveat is installation. McCarthy arrived in a Sept. 28 trade with Minnesota, and a full scheme means mastering its reads midseason. Harbaugh said a quarterback's grasp of "the terms and its cadences and the checks" is "something that we have been grappling with."
The Giants' QB Decision Could Decide the Scheme
Keeping Winston means sticking with the pocket-based approach of the past month. Starting McCarthy would reopen part of the original playbook. Raanan's own gut feeling is that Harbaugh gives Winston one more game, as we covered in Jameis Winston Gets 'One More Opportunity' for Giants, Raanan Expects.
Jordan Raanan on the Giants quarterback situation: "My gut feeling is that John Harbaugh is going to give Jameis [Winston] one more opportunity to secure this job." (Via @BreakingBigBlue) — Big Blue Film Room (@BigBlueFilmRoom) on X, October 20, 2026
Raanan did not say how much of the Dart offense would return, or how quickly. A decision is expected before the Giants practice Wednesday, ahead of Sunday's 1 p.m. ET kickoff against the Texans, their final game before the bye.
Our Take: JJ McCarthy Brings Back the Giants' Best Plan
This is the part of the McCarthy move I like most. He helps bring back the offense the Giants designed for Jaxson Dart, and I think his mobility will get the run game going.
The run game needs it. Giants backs averaged 3.1 yards per carry in Weeks 4 to 6, 195 yards on 63 carries, per Pro Football Reference.
Zone reads and RPOs make a defense account for the quarterback, which takes a defender away from the back.
The caveat is installation. McCarthy arrived from Minnesota about three weeks ago. But the Giants' best plan this season always included a running quarterback, and now they have one again.
It also gives the Giants a useful preview for 2027. Whatever works for McCarthy should carry over when Dart returns.
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