Trade news: Giants finalizes deal to sign 23 year old QB worth $125million ahead of 2024 NFL draft.

The New York Giants are meeting with Heisman Trophy winner Jayden Daniels, but Big Blue plan on taking a “closer look” at national champion J.J. McCarthy ahead of the 2024 NFL draft.

Daniels met with the Giants at his pro day on Wednesday, March 27, but McCarthy will have a “private workout” with the team on Easter Sunday, according to Pat Leonard of the New York Daily News. Leonard also noted assistant general manager Brandon Brown and quarterbacks coach Shea Tierney “were at McCarthy’s pro day,” but the Giants will conduct further research on the Michigan star.

The due diligence is proof the Giants are committed to at least exhausting every possible option at football’s most important position. Head coach Brian Daboll and general manager Joe Schoen still expect incumbent Daniel Jones to be the starter once he’s healthy, but team president John Mara has given the okay to draft a QB, even if it means trading up in Round 1.

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J.J. McCarthy Within Giants’ Sights at No. 6

What’s significant about McCarthy’s planned workout is the Giants might not have to trade up to select him. There’s a good chance he’ll still be on the board when the Giants pick first at sixth overall.

Caleb Williams, Drake Maye and Daniels are the marquee names in this class. The trio will likely to go to the Chicago Bears, Washington Commanders and New England Patriots in some kind of order.

McCarthy’s potential availability for the Giants is one reason why “we can at least dismiss the notion that their QB interest is a ‘smoke screen,’” per Dan Duggan of The Athletic. As Duggan put it, “Time is too valuable to travel around the country in a misdirection attempt.”

It’s also not as if the Giants don’t have room for a potential franchise quarterback. They paid Jones like one when they handed him a $160-million contract last offseason, but turnovers and neck and ACL injuries wrecked his 2023 season.