The Right Time with Bomani Jones - BREAKING NEWS: J.J. McCarthy traded to the Giants, Why did the Vikings give him away? | 09.28

Episode Date: September 28, 2026

Bomani Jones reacts to the New York Giants trading for J.J. McCarthy and asks what the move says about both the Giants and McCarthy's future in the NFL. Bomani and Ryan break down why Minnesota was willing to move on from McCarthy so quickly, what the Giants are getting for a fifth-round pick, and whether a fresh start in New York can revive the former first-round quarterback's career. They also look back at other highly drafted quarterbacks whose teams gave up on them early, then the conversation turns to Michigan's 2023 national championship team, the lack of NFL success from some of its notable players, the sign-stealing scandal and some lingering questions about the Jim Harbaugh era.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Lisa, tell them about our new show. We have a new podcast. It's called Don't Lie to Me. I'm Lexi Youanu. We're two best friends, 22 years apart, but so close at heart. And I'm Lisa Di Giulio, the old one, which means we have wildly different references, occasionally different opinions, and at this point in my 50s, I've lived it all. Now in my 30s, being the founder of new shoes, good taste is my business.

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My name is Beaumani Jones. Thanks for listening wherever you get your podcast. Thanks for watching us on YouTube. Subscribe, like, rate us, review us. Give us five stars. You only give us four stars. I'm inclined to believe you are a hater. Here I was thinking that since we did a Monday show,

we were done working for Monday, and then Ryan sends me a text that says, L.O.L. J.J. McCarthy to the Giants. And I'm like, what are you? Oh, man, are you serious? Are they really doing this? And so I am very, I don't know what confused is the right way to put this.

I mean, I think this is a tricky situation for the giant. Okay. Entertaining, though we all find James to be, he's sorry. They know he's sorry. And they have a team that if the quarterback, plays decently, has a legitimate chance to win the division

or at the very least make the playoffs. Like things are on the board. What are they? They're two and one right now. Yes. It is far too early to simply bail on the season. So it's like, okay, let's go get us a quarterback. Now, there was a world in which maybe the move would be,

well, you just wait for the Raiders to sorry up a little bit. And then you go get Kurt Cousins, which I don't think is the greatest idea in the world, but it's very much on brand for the Giants. He's a little hokey, though, right? Like maybe Phil Sims was hokey like that when he, well, I guess they had Eli Manit too. Never mind.

Anyway, the Raiders are not sorry enough to allow that to happen. Okay? So I guess they decided to take the big swing on talent and trade a fifth round pick to get JJ McCarthy. or, I mean, it's not off the board that these Giants owners have witnessed a couple of these James interviews and were like, hell not.

He can't be the quarterback of my speaker. Speaking of being a little hokey, he can't be a quarterback. No, no, no, no, no. This ain't the face of our shit. No, no, no, no. We didn't fire Ben McAdu for playing Geno Smith to let this cat be in front of what it is we got going.

No, no, no. So now, I guess they're going to have to give J.J. McCartney. Five times nine, get on the sideline. Yeah, yeah, yeah, no, no. So I guess they got to give McCarthy time to, like, get a hold of the playbook. I don't know exactly how long that's going to take. I don't know if the Giants will, like, really still have a season. I also have no idea what expectations the Giants have for what they do when they get McCarthy.

but I feel like the fact that they got him for only a fifth round pick tells me if he isn't the starter, NBD. They didn't really like have to put out that much in order to make this happen. Now, you want to see, you want to hear the list of quarterbacks who didn't start 10 games or less for their team that drafted them over the last 25 years? Okay.

I do give me the list of name. and then later I will give you another list. Go with that list of names. Paxton Lynch. Hold on one second. It's 10? No, it's no, it's four. It's now four.

All right, four in the last 25 years. Yes. Allow me to guess. Okay. Paxton Lynch. Yep. Johnny Manzo. Yep.

Trey Lance. I think that's the list. Oh, wow. He's the fourth. Yeah. Wow. Damn. them. That's harsh.

Yes. That's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, and they don't like them. Like we got, I hate to, like, I, I keep talking about this with him. And I think it's very important for him to understand about the giants right now. And granted, part of this is because it was early in the season and that's how things can typically go. But the vibes seem to be good there, right? Like, they like, they like that scataboo situation. You see that,

if you're seeing that weird ass commercial to him, like messing stuff up and he goes in the restaurant and the waiter runs away because they're just- I've not seen that, but that is very on brand. Basically, they're leaning into the idea. And it's a, if he can run for 1,000 yards, my man from SVU needs to watch out. Because it's about to be a whole new mayhem.

Or mayhem is going to get a sidekick out here. If this dude could just put together one good season, right? But anyway, he got the people feeling good, the Jackson Dark thing. Like, you know, there's a, there's a thing around the team right now. And JJ McCarthy's bad vibes or has been bad vibes. He's got to figure this out. He's got to come over here because James is good vibes, man. It's, again, it's very weird, but it's very true.

He is good vibes. McCarthy can't mess this up. And unfortunately for McCarthy, unless he's just a vastly different player that we just saw. Vastly different. They're going to stink with him. And he's going to go from stinking in Minnesota

to stinking in New York City, which is going to raise like serious questions about will he have a career after this year? At all. Okay? So hear me. out here. I got all the tweets immediately after this happened and I was like, damn, Sam

Darnold, who after three years was cheeks. We all agree there, right? Regardless of what you think it turned into, it was a desolate situation after three years. And the Jets still got three picks for him. Okay. And then I mentioned the 49ers got a four for Trey Lance. They could only get a five for J.J. McCarthy from a team desperate for competent quarterback play, they got a guy young who has started

in the NFL. And that's all you could, all you, all you had to give was a five? Ugh. Right? Like, that's bad, but buddy, I pulled up a list that I believe is complete

of quarterback since 2011, okay, since the Ricky Wade scale, it was, you know, was introduced in the NFL, which kind of changed the way the teams handled quarterbacks. And I got a list of teams or quarterbacks whose teams bailed on them within the first three years, okay? And by bailing, I mean, maybe they traded you, maybe they released you, maybe they just set you on the bench, but you were cooked. It is shocking. how many guys are on this list.

Like the number is 14. Okay, and we're effectively talking about a 14-year time period. So you're basically betting on there being one quarterback per draft in the first round that a team is going to flat out give up on into first three years. Blaine Gabbard, Christian Ponder, remember him? Oh, yeah. Yeah.

They drafted another quarterback three years later. Robert Griffin, Brandon Wheaton, they flat released him. They ain't even asked for nothing back. Of course, he was 46 years old. Yeah, I was going to say, he got his AARP card. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's a tough situation.

You know, he had another pension. He wasn't even really tripping. E.J. Manuel, and I remember when they benched him, they benched him because he was out there throwing hospital balls. Like, it was very clear. they traded him or they benched him because otherwise everybody was going to quit. Johnny Mansell released after year two. Paxton Lynch released after year two.

And by the way, Johnny Manzell is 2014. So we have at least one quarterback every year through 2014. 2015, this didn't happen. But 2015 was James Winston and Marcus Mariotta to start the draft. Neither of them got extensions. Okay. 2016 was Paxton Lynch, all-time, terrible draft pick that Jerry Jones wanted to make and lucky for him stumbled into Dak Prescott.

Sam Darnal. And I believe, though, that don't forget the 2017 quarterback, that's Deshawn Watson and Patrick Mahomes, which, you know, worked out okay for the teams that drafted them. But Mitchell Trebisky was the number two pick that year. Okay. Sam Darnel traded after year three. Josh Rosen bailed on him after year one,

but they got a second round pick for him again for context on J.J. McCarthy. That was a weird situation, but apparently he was cheeks. And apparently he doesn't care because he had law school. Dwayne Haskins, rest in peace, but they released him after two years. Zach Wilson, the 2020, the 2020 draft is interesting. because none of those guys were early washouts, but Tua, we saw what happened there. It was in the course of happening and Justin Herbert.

But Zach Wilson, 2021, they traded him for nothing. They basically were like, come pick him up. And we ain't going to bring him to him. You got to come get him. Trey Lance, Justin Fields, Matt Jones, okay? Y'all in one draft.

Yeah, that is all four of them in one draft. And now we get to, who we just say, J.J. McCarthy in 2024. I went through the entire list simply because this is a little bit more common than I was giving it credit for being. Right. And hey, look at that, that 2023 draft right now with C.J. Stroud. Is that 23? Yes. That 20203 draft with C.J. Stroud, we're not sure what's going on there. The long loading times. The glitchy video calls.

That's your house asking for better internet. Switch to Bell Pure Fiber, Canada's most reliable internet awarded by Open Signal from $75 a month. Price guaranteed for two years on a two-year term and auto pay credit. Visit bell.ca for more details and to check availability. Bell, connection is everything. Lisa, we should tell them about our new show. Oh my God, Lexi. We have a new podcast. It's called Don't Lie to Me.

I'm Lexi Youanu. We're two best friends, 22 years apart, but so close at heart. And I'm Lisa Di Giulio, the old one, which means we have wildly different references, occasionally different opinions. And at this point in my 50s, I've lived it all. I'm not going to get anywhere fighting. That is wild. I learned that about you today. Now in my 30s, being the founder of new shoes, good taste is my business. And I've always got something to say. If men were just honest about this, there would be so much more peace in the world.

We're going to talk about dating, relationships, beauty, getting older, and a little wiser. We're best friends, but we don't always agree. Because you told us how accommodating you are. Obviously, I would do what I think I could do to fight the fight, but there's only so much fight I can fight. Don't lie to me. Don't lie to me. Don't lie to me. Don't lie to me. Don't lie to me. Don't lie to me. Liar. Listen on the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,

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24, it's going to be very interesting to see what Washington does with Jane Daniels, given their concern with his health, but at least they're not concerned with his play. And then Drake May, who looked like Silky Johnson's coat right now, this just happens. And who knows with going a little further, you get to, you know, Michael Pennix is one injury away. Anthony Richardson. Anthony Richardson. He's been bailed on. Right.

Michael Pinnock's, I don't, I don't see it. Right. I do not see it. Bo Nix. We're going to see what winds up happening there. The tricky thing with Nix is that they are good. Yes. So they're not in a position to just hit the reset button on this.

And if they traded Bo Nix, they'd get more than a fifth round pick. Correct. They could definitely fool somebody into doing this for a better. I feel like what they needed to do, and I don't know if this draft had one of those, is if you can find a Colin Kaepernick, Andy Dalton, like starter caliber, second round pick that you can mess around and go get. Right. Like that's the thing about the 2011 draft.

The second round had two actual factual starters, one of whom played in the Super Bowl. Dalton and Kaepernick, who I believe were back-to-back picks in that draft. So it's not so shocking that it worked out this way for McCarthy. I think the shock is that the Vikings were good because we typically talk about what ruins it for quarterbacks is that they're all, you know, they get caught up in some kind of bad situation

and everything around them is terrible and therefore they can't get it done. McCarthy was hurt and they gave him one year. They did not force this. They did not continue to try to do it. They gave him one year and were like, no, and wound up with him as the third stringer going into this. year. And their starting quarterback has already gotten a concussion. Yes. And the backup is Carson

Went to gets hurt every year. And they still said, we don't need this. We would, we'd rather go to the waper wire and pick someone else up than bring, put you in, no circumstance. Are we putting this guy on the field? Like, I didn't even bother them. Look, if he was active for those games, I'm assuming not. Like, he probably, he probably didn't even got no cleats. Yeah. It's like, yeah, man, I mean, like, if you want to, like, you can watch from back here. if you want. It's your call. I mean, like, it's a great view from the field. You know, you can learn a lot for your next job.

Yeah, yeah, that's what they're going to do. And I think you just made a very interesting point because the Vikings are 3 in 0 right now. They have what could prove to be a great defense. Justin Jefferson just got hurt. So, like, the crutch that all those courts, have that one, the high ankle sprain. Like, I'm figuring he's not going to be worth a damn for a good month and change.

Around there, yeah. He's not going to be like, he's not going to be the caliber of player that we've been talking about. I did say Justin, didn't I? You did say Justin. Okay. I feel like I deserve a little credit for that, you know. But they don't need a lot. They just need a bit.

And like, well, McCarthy should have been for them at the very least, given where they took him in the draft is like, If we can just stop you from making mistakes and every now and then you make some sort of big play. Remember, he had those, like last year, he had those two fourth quarters early in the year, like those game winning drives that gave- On national TV, I think, yeah. Yeah, that gave like some glimmer of hope. And then it just became so clear. It really became clear to me it was over for him where he did the Gritty in the end zone.

And Kevin O'Connell was so mad. You bring this up all the time. He was so mad. I was like, oh, they hate him. Right? I didn't think that was really that egregious and offense. Like I felt like honestly, if it had been a black dude who'd done that and O'Connell had been so mad at him, we'd have had a whole completely different discussion.

We'd be talking about him like they did with Stefanski and Chedore D Sanders. Like, damn, what do he do to you? No, man, they were just like, we can't stand this motherfucker, man. Shit. Told him just, told him to act like he'd been here before. But clearly he hasn't. I have one more tangent. I'm becoming a, I'm becoming a bit of a truth or about the 2024 Michigan national championship.

Oh, by it being completely bogus because of the cheating? None of those players in the NFL are good and Jim Harbaugh might not be good either. Like at some point, like, it's just Blake Corum, who's like a decent NFL player and he plays for Sean McVay. like he's the backup running back for Sean McVey like at some point all these it has to matter that all these players got drafted and none of them are good well the thing is also it was going one way for them

and then suddenly it went that way yes and that inflection point appears to coincide with when they started flatly cheating yes and which no one denies by the way It's not like it's SpyGate or it's like, yeah, but, no, they just aren't the

gate where they avidly deny the allegations. No one is there. Yeah, well, the thing about SpyGate that is interesting is they're doing the same thing that we're talking about here. The Michigan story was just so much more interesting because it was so much more hilarious, right? It was a guy with a funny name going above and beyond the call of duty and like getting himself on to the silence.

I cannot imagine how much fun it was to sneak his way onto the sidelines like he did. Because like some of y'all maybe ain't never snuck into nothing. It's so much fun. Like every time, me and my buddy James snuck into a lingerie fashion show because we saw the Bishop Dom Magic Wand pull up. And tried to sneak into the Super Bowl. That one's been told too. I did. I did.

I was, no, I did sneak in. I was just found out before it could like really happy. anything where you can mess around and get in that door before that thing shut down or whatever or like used to be sneaking in the cafeteria when you wasn't on the meal plan, it's a great time. This dude was pushing it to the limit. Like I could even hear the music. Right. You know, like I would love to see like an 80s movie montage of him doing all that with all the different shots and the music and him like with a hat and some shades.

He just figured out how to get through and just like, it's all there. But yes, you, you. No one can say that you're wrong. Right. As things stay in, right? You can say my opinion is ridiculous. You cannot refute it with facts. Anyway, I wish that young man, good luck, right?

I had to say one last thing about the Giants. Of course. Doesn't this feel more like everything about them feel more like Jetsy behavior? Except if it was the Jets, nobody would think it was cute here. They would all think it was clouds. Yeah, the Jets, we'd all be laughing at the Jets. Yes. Yes, like even John Riggins had to go to Washington to be fully appreciated for his eccentricity from what I could tell.

New York football. It's sorry. Has been a filmmaker production.