J.J. McCarthy's Crash Course: Inside the Giants' Plan to Get Their New QB Up to Speed

School is in session not only for children, but also for newly acquired quarterback J.J. McCarthy.

But unlike most students, McCarthy is on a crash course to learn as much of the Giants' offense as possible while also learning the weekly game plans and adapting what he already knows from his time at the University of Michigan and with the Minnesota Vikings to what the Giants need.

So what does a crash course look like for a quarterback? The question was put to Giants quarterbacks coach Brian Callahan, the man tasked with getting McCarthy up to speed as quickly as possible, who was only too happy to lay out his lesson plans.

"So basically we take just the operation piece, formations, motions, shifts, cadence. A lot of that stuff is some carryover. I mean, he's still an NFL quarterback, so there's a lot of things that he's done before," Callahan said on Friday.

"Then you start really day one of our OTA installs essentially. So I basically took him through the entire run game from installs one through eight or nine in the run game.

"And then he comes back the next day, and we did the entire installs and the protection on how he handled all the different fronts and the calls and the terms."

While McCarthy is learning the installs that others learned in the spring, he's also being taught the game plan, according to Callahan.

"He's still getting the game plan every day," Callahan said. "So it's, it's catching up on all his background information and terms and verbiage while he's sort of trying to piece together what we're actually putting in for the game plan and trying to close that gap from what's been worked on for the last six months to what we're doing today."

And that's just part of the process.

"Then you start with the pass game terminology. How do we have our words and names, what associates, and what means what."

The process, according to Callahan, has involved "hours and hours and hours worth of that from the time he gets to the building in the morning to the time he leaves at night."

"I thought he did a good job with that. 24/7 almost really trying to be immersed in the offense," said head coach John Harbaugh. "He wants to learn. He wants to know it all. And that's what we've been working on."

So far, so good for McCarthy.

"Attacking it day by day, you know, I feel really good," he said in his first public comments since the trade. "Offensive football, it's all the same concepts really for the most part. So it's about getting the verbiage down and everything like that.

"I feel like I'm picking it up pretty quick, but at the end of the day, it's a new game plan every single week and just focus on the next thing, you know, and that's where I'll end up is where I'll end up when the time gets there."

McCarthy's Future

This crash course suggests the Giants view McCarthy as their backup quarterback behind starter Jameis Winston, which makes sense.

But Harbaugh wasn't ready to announce that decision.

"I would say probably, honestly, we're probably still figuring it out," he said. "How do we use him? How do we use (quarterback) Jake (Haener) in those kinds of backup roles? Who's ready for what? Jake's only been here for like a month, too. But he's obviously more immersed in the offense. So, we have to decide those things."

If Winston continues to struggle to find the end zone (the Giants have gone eight quarters without scoring a touchdown), having McCarthy ready to run the offense sooner rather than later gives the coaching staff the option to make a change.

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