Giants Mailbag: Andrew Thomas' Health, J.J. McCarthy's Timeline and the Pass Rush Problem

Welcome to the weekly New York Giants On SI mailbag! From offseason moves to game-day strategies, we'll do our best to answer your questions. (Some questions have been edited for brevity and clarity.)

Andrew Thomas Concerns

From @MetLifeElectric: Is it time to sit Andrew Thomas and get him healthy for the rest of the season? Marcus Mbow can fill in, it’s not doom and gloom this year when AT leaves.

MLE, I am not sure Thoams is ever going to be truly healthy even if he sits. If they can manage his injury — and it looks like they figured out a way to do so, might as well play him and see how far he can go. Hopefully he’ll be able to go for the duration of the season. And if he can’t, as you noted, Mbow should be able to step in.

From @AndrewBogdan: When do you think the Giants are going to look to address a plan as it relates to Andrew Thomas seeing as his health every year seems to be an issue?

Andrew, I suspect they already have the answer in Marcus Mbow. As to when they officially flip the switch, that’s an interesting question.

Thomas doesn’t have any more guaranteed money in his contract after this year and while they can gain a cap savings if they move on from him, they’d also eat almost $25 million if they were to do so pre-June 1.

(Post June 1 the savings goes up to $19.3 million which the dead money drops to $10.562 million in 2027 and over $14 million in 2028.)

As you noted, Thomas is good when he’s healthy. Personally I’d be reluctant to throw the baby out with the bath water; instead, I’d want to see if there wasn't something that could be done to help Thomas cut down on these soft tissue injuries.

The Quarterback

From @Barchyman: Might having Jaxson Dart in the QB room (5 mos younger, drafted a year later, worked hard to absorb a new system and was showing the fruits of those labors) be a better “this is how you do it” model for J.J. McCarthy than the older veterans around him in Minnesota?

I don’t think so. I suppose there are pros and cons to each—the pros being when you have a teammate that’s on par with your ager and experience, you can learn together.

The cons are there could be more competitiveness and, on occasion, the blind leading the blind. I thin wit J.J. McCarthy, he simply needs to be receptive to any coaching he receivers from teammates and to put the work in and it won’t matter who is around him (assuming no one is out to intentionally sabotage him, that is.)

From @TheGmenHuddle: If you had to guess, when will JJ McCarthy start at QB?

Gmen, put this way: If Winston can’t start getting this team into the end zone, I could see a switch being made after the bye week so long as the Giants can keep their head above water.

Meanwhile, don’t be surprised if as soon as next week you see the Giants put in a select number of packages specifically for McCarthy if he’s the No. 2 quarterback.

From @KrisKauffeld: Loved the podcast with the locked on Vikings host. He made it clear that McCarthy needs development time. What does that look like in the regular season with snaps limited?

Kris, check out this article, which was posted yesterday. Quarterbacks coach Brian Calllahan spelled it out perfectly and about as thoroughly as can be.

From Joe G. (via e-mail): Winston did not have a super game, but I thought the play calling near the red zone was atrocious. Don't remember once calling for him to throw it into the end zone. Trick plays backfired. With penalties also they went backwards. In the red zone, this is one area they need to clean up quickly, especially the play calling. Your take?

Joe, you answered your own question — there’s not that much I can add to what you wrote.

Where is the Pass Rush?

Sep 21, 2026; Inglewood, California, USA; Los Angeles Rams running back Kyren Williams (23) runs against New York Giants linebacker Kayvon Thibodeaux (5) during the third quarter at SoFi Stadium. | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

From Alan W. (via e-mail): I've been watching Abdul Carter this year and it appears that very often he is lined up with his hand in the ground opposite an offensive tackle.

Against the Titans, he was across from JC Latham, who outweighs him by 90 pounds. On Sunday, the Giants had three players on defense over 300 pounds (Reader, Alexander, Okoye) and they played 66 snaps in total.

It seems that this allows the offensive lineman to swallow up the much lighter edge rushers for the Giants. Is the lack of big bodies on defense the reason the pass rush has not met expectations?

Alan, that could be one of the reasons–oftentimes the Giants edge defenders are outweighed by their opponents by a good 50+ pounds. But there are other reasons, from the defenders not disengaging from their blocks, to not varying their pass rush moves.

You can also throw in a lack of aggressive hand fighting and of course, let’s also give credit to the quarterbacks who are getting the ball out of their hands in under 2.5 seconds.

Play Calling Questions

From @StarbloodNah: Does Harbaugh and Nagy truly think we can sustain trying to smash-mouth teams without much of a passing attack?

I doubt it. I don’t think either of them are that clueless.

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