Exclusive | Experts break down all aspects of Giants potentailly trading for J.J. McCarthy: Pros, cons, risks

Could the Giants find their quarterback of the future by revisiting their recent past? The Giants bypassed J.J.McCarthy and instead selected receiver Malik Nabers with the No.

6 pick of the 2024 NFL Draft after conducting extensive in-person homework on the quarterback who guided Michigan to a national championship. “Malik was our guy,” general manager Joe Schoen said when asked about choosing between those two prospects.“He was the guy we targeted.” One year later, the Vikings, who drafted McCarthy with the No.

10 pick, could use him as a trade chip if they re-sign surprise Pro Bowler Sam Darnold to a massive extension instead of franchise-tagging Darnold. Would the Giants offer the No.3 pick in 2025? Should they? McCarthy once was a polarizing scouting evaluation inside the Giants, but circumstances change: The quarterback need is greater now, and the top two options in the 2025 draft class — Shedeur Sanders and Cam Ward — might be just out of reach. The Post asked several NFL sources whether the Giants should trade No.

3 for McCarthy, working under assumptions that he will be graded higher than Sanders and Ward and that the Vikings will entertain offers. If Sanders and Ward are going to be the top-two picks, the Giants will need to trade multiple picks to the quarterback-needy Titans (No.1) or Browns (No.

2) to move up.It sounds like a big risk when the early consensus in scouting circles is that neither Sanders nor Ward would have been higher than the fourth-best quarterback in the 2024 class. Swapping spots from No.

3 to No.2 to secure a quarterback (Mitch Trubisky) cost the Bears two third-rounders and a fourth-rounder in a trade with the 49ers in 2017. So, the Giants would acquire a better player in McCarthy for a lesser cost: just the No.

3 pick instead of No.3 and more.

And McCarthy only would be owed a bargain $8.3 million total over three seasons (instead of the standard four-year rookie contract). “I would do it if it’s a...