Eli Manning said New York Giants fans have a right to be excited about J.J. McCarthy during an appearance on The Colin Cowherd Podcast released Wednesday.
The Volume posted the clip on X. Colin Cowherd opened the segment by saying he had never seen McCarthy look the way he has in New York, then asked Manning whether he should believe it.
Manning, a two-time Super Bowl champion, went back to the Oct. 18 game against the New Orleans Saints first.
“That’s the way he’s looked the last two games,” Manning said. “In the fourth quarter of the game before, gets in there. I mean, at that situation, hey, kind of nothing to lose. Get in there, go slinging. Just playing confident.”
Coach John Harbaugh pulled Jameis Winston early in that fourth quarter with New York trailing 34-10. McCarthy completed 11 of 21 passes for 243 yards with a touchdown and an interception.
Seventeen straight points followed. A fourth-and-1 throw to tight end Isaiah Likely fell incomplete in the end zone with 12 seconds left, and the Saints held on for a 34-27 win.
The Associated Press reported that the 243 yards tied Manning’s mark from Sept. 16, 2012, against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers for the most fourth-quarter passing yards by a Giants quarterback in at least 35 years.
“I think that was so helpful to get him those reps, get him into that game,” Manning continued. “When you’re running your two-minute drill, hey, these are probably the plays that you’ve run the most of these plays. I think it got him into a great rhythm. And now all of a sudden he’s playing confident. He’s playing free. He can still run and create plays that way.”
Harbaugh named McCarthy the starter for Week 7. In Houston on Sunday, McCarthy completed 20 of 28 passes for 252 yards with no touchdowns and no interceptions in a 27-21 overtime win over the Houston Texans.
Devin Singletary ended it with a 30-yard touchdown run. McCarthy won a national title with Michigan in the same stadium in January 2024.
The New York Giants said McCarthy’s 339 passing yards in a two-quarter span bridging the two games are the most by any Giants quarterback since at least 1991. The win was his fifth straight as a starter, a run that began with the Minnesota Vikings.
New York acquired McCarthy from Minnesota on Sept. 28 for a 2027 fifth-round pick. Starter Jaxson Dart had suffered a season-ending knee injury in Week 2.
The Vikings drafted McCarthy No. 10 overall in 2024, and he went 6-4 as their starter. In 2025, he completed 140 of 243 passes, or 57.6 percent, for 1,632 yards with 11 touchdowns and 12 interceptions.
“Sometimes for that young quarterback, just a change of scenery, change of offense,” Manning added. “I think you have a right to be excited. I think Giants fans are obviously very excited watching him play.”
McCarthy, 23, is in the third season of a fully guaranteed four-year, $21.85 million rookie contract. His 2026 base salary is $1.075 million, and the team holds a fifth-year option for 2028.
Winston, 32, signed a two-year, $13 million extension before the season to serve as the backup.
The New York Giants are 4-2-1 and off this week. Should McCarthy keep the job through the bye, his next start comes Nov. 8 at 1 p.m. ET against the Philadelphia Eagles at Lincoln Financial Field.
