Texas Football: Why Colt McCoy to the Giants could work out well

This cycle of free agency in the NFL is keeping plenty of attention for Texas football fans away from the wave of novel coronavirus lately.

A former star quarterback out of the Texas football program landed with yet another team in the NFC East in this phase of NFL’s free agency. Former Texas record-breaking quarterback Colt McCoy is reportedly (ESPN) set to join his fourth team in his NFL career, as he signed with the New York Giants out of free agency. McCoy most recently spent five years with the Washington Redskins. That goes along with the three years he spent with the Cleveland Browns when he first entered the NFL, and one year with the San Francisco 49ers.

This is the second stop for McCoy in the NFC East. He first joined the Redskins back in 2014, and he’ll move into the new decade in the same division. McCoy got to play in 11 games, seven of which he started, during his time in the nation’s capital too.

As the lone quarterback out of the 2010 NFL Draft class that is still left in the league, McCoy holds a special place. Now with the Giants, McCoy could find himself in another role where he is called to action at some point during the regular season.

This former star quarterback out of the Texas Longhorns football program signed this deal with the Giants for one year, worth around $1.5 million. He’ll be 33 years old (almost 34) at the outset of the 2020 NFL season.

The quarterback that will be ahead of McCoy on the depth chart for the Giants will be the former Duke Blue Devil and first round 2019 NFL Draft pick Daniel Jones. He’ll also be joined by the Monmouth product Alex Tanney, likely to be the third string quarterback behind Jones and McCoy.

Last season, Jones overtook the potential future Pro-Football Hall-of-Famer Eli Manning as the Giants starting quarterback. The Giants didn’t do too great in the win column, finishing up the 2019 season with a record of 4-12.

If Jones deals with any injuries or any game is in garbage time, the Giants could be giving more looks to McCoy. Since McCoy had a handful of starts in place of Alex Smith and/or Dwayne Haskins with the Redskins over the course of the last two years, he shouldn’t come into his next landing spot with much rust.

In his NFL career, McCoy has played in 39 games (7-21-0 record as a starter). He completed more than 60 percent of his passing attempts in those 39 games for 6,080 passing yards, 29 touchdowns, and 27 interceptions. Turnover problems can be a nagging regularity for McCoy, but he’s also going to give teams a higher floor as a backup quarterback and knows his role well at this point.

In his rookie season, Jones played in 13 games (3-9-0 record as a starter). He registered a completion rate of 61.9 percent to go along with 3,027 passing yards, 26 total touchdowns, and 12 interceptions. Those are decent numbers for a rookie season for Jones where he was tossed into the fire sooner than anticipated.

The Giants still have one of the more volatile quarterback situations of any team in the NFL at the moment. Jones could have a bright future ahead, and McCoy could be a good mentor on his career path. But McCoy is also likely facing a situation where he could easily see playing time in at least three or four games.