New York Giants: Giants should consider adding AJ McCarron

On Thursday the Raiders cut former Alabama quarterback, AJ McCarron, who has serious potential and the New York Giants should at least take a look at the former Heisman runner-up.

The New York Giants should have all eyes open on new quarterbacks and AJ McCarron is a Heisman runner-up, and two-time College Football National-Champion, yet only has three career starts in the NFL.

AJ McCarron was a fantastic College Football player in his four years at the University of Alabama. In his three years as starter for the Crimson Tide McCarron threw for 8,630 yards, 74 touchdowns and only 15 interceptions… in three years as a starter at the best program in College Football during that three-year span.

Yet in the NFL, McCarron has appeared in only 13 games with three starts over five years. Should McCarron be given the chance many believe he deserves? We may see that he has a place in the NFL as a starting quarterback.

In 2015, McCarron appeared in seven games, three of which he started for the Bengals. Over that seven game span McCarron threw for 854 yards, with six touchdowns and only two interceptions.

Pretty good numbers if you ask me, and even better when you consider the fact that the Bengals were 2-1 in the three games he started, which helped the Bengals win the AFC North with a record of 12-4.

Since then, McCarron has floated around between the Bengals, Bills and Raiders, but he now finds himself as a free agent after being cut by Oakland. With their current struggles at the quarterback position, maybe it’s time for the New York Giants to take a look at AJ McCarron.

It would cost the Giants next to nothing to sign McCarron seeing he is a career backup to this point and has only appeared in 13 games over five years, meaning he doesn’t have much room for negotiation, what he gets is what he gets.

The Giants are in a position where they can afford to play around with a couple different quarterbacks during the 2019 season. Without much star power at any position other than running back, the Giants could give McCarron some time at quarterback and see how he fares.

Even if the Giants sign him and test him out in the preseason, but cut him to make room for the 53-man roster, it may be worth it to at least give him a shot.

If nothing changes between here and the first night of the draft, it looks like the Giants are either going to draft Dwayne Haskins or trade for Josh Rosen. Going the McCarron route is likely a much safer route than going with Josh Rosen.

Should the Giants trade for Rosen they are giving up a couple picks for a guy that was not nearly as impressive as McCarron was in college. Sure, it’s college, but at the moment that is really all we have to go off of and McCarron was far better at that stage than Rosen was.

Whoever they go with, they will be a backup for at least the 2019 season and with their fourth round pick in last year’s draft, Kyle Lauletta currently serving that role, we could have a little competition between quarterbacks for the backup position.

If you put AJ McCarron up against Kyle Lauletta in a battle for backup, personally I think that is a competition McCarron would win.

Even if they don’t plan on keeping him around when they have to make cuts for the 53-man roster, AJ McCarron is a guy the Giants should at least think about signing.