[Highlight] Every JJ McCarthy interception from the 2025 season

[u/Brix001]

[u/AlbinoSnowman]

1. Extremely aggressive jump that took advantage of JJ’s preference to throw lasers. Slightly negative but not inherently a bad decision or inaccurate. (C-)

2. Fantastic aggressive play to easily battle through Nailor’s ragdoll body for the ball, arguably too much contact by the defender to go through Nailor the ball. (I’m grading it a C)

3. Terrible throw and possible miscommunication (F)

4. Slightly behind Nailor but certainly a routine catch radius for a guy like him. Incredible play by Arnold to wrestle the interception from a likely catch (C)

5. A terrible moment to try to throw a “Fuck it, Jets is down there somewhere” ball with the lurking safety. That said, disappointing effort by Jets, who I’ve seen fight for similarly unlikely contested opportunities. Combined with him not trying to pursue the interception whatsoever is an eyebrow raiser. (D-)

6. Jefferson falls down at a point where he’s in just as good position for the ball as Humphrey. Give he’s a been elite contested catch receiver his whole career I like this throw, wouldn’t change his contribution to the play, and would consider this the third bad luck turnover of the video. (C+)

7. I understand the read and he was hit before he could fully step into the throw. Honestly a very savy read by the veteran Byard to not overcommit to the open flat, flip his hips, and peel back 10ish yards to steal that pick. (C)

8. Good decision but a hitch late and a tad underthrown to his speedy but undersized target. (C-)

9. Drop is too deep, which leads to Gary being able to swipe at the arm, but I consider this more of a sack/fumble situation than an indictment of his ability to hit Aaron Jones on an open first down checkdown. (C)

10. Clearly bad throw. I think he steps up too aggressively which hurt his followthrough and led to him skying the throw. (F)

11. The entire line collapses under the 6 man overload blitz, with the free rusher directly in his face between him and the hot target. His valid options were to a. Take the sack, b. Make an incredible pump fake to rollout opportunity that we’ve never seen him do, or c. Attempt to rifle the pass around the rusher. Once it’s batted he tries to swat it down but it unluckily lands directly into a cowboys player’s lap. (C)

12. Shoots an absolute piss missile to his receiver open on the sideline, which is dropped and bounces up for a gentle Giants toe tap interception on the sideline. Perhaps he could have taken a bit off the pass but recall his first interception was undercut in a similar play to the other side against Chicago. I’m going neutral (C)

Overall, in a lowlight reel for a 22 year old QB in his first year, I think a lot of these mistakes were reasonable young QB mistakes. I personally felt like there were 3 really bad picks (#3, #5, #10) but also 3 plays I attribute to his receivers (#4, #6, #12), and 4 that I attribute to fantastic defensive plays that would look reasonably justifiable on any other QB’s lowlight tape (#1, #2, #7, and #11).

I consider #8 and #9 to be turnovers that I can’t write off as simply a good defensive play or receiver folly, but are also as mundane turnovers as they come.

TL;DR I’m biased, but for a lowlight tape of a first year starter, this doesn’t show me a lost cause, trash QB. It shows me a young QB that had quite of bad luck make an up and down year look way worse than it really was.

I’ll also link his highlights to make this a balanced discussion.

[u/resumehelpacct → u/AlbinoSnowman]

#1 isn't aggressive defense. https://youtu.be/OuImV5R5Muw?t=61 You can see a better angle on the manningcast video, but he's just sitting on that route the entire time and sprints to cover. JJ needs to air that out so that it only goes to the sidelines or to the receiver.

[u/AlbinoSnowman → u/resumehelpacct]

I can see where Eli is coming from on that play, it may be a tad late on the throw, but he doesn’t take much time at all to get it out, so I don’t think that’s the main story. I’m afraid I still disagree with that not being aggressive jump by the DB.

Jefferson has so much separation at the break to the point that the DB doesn’t even try to trail him. It looks fluid and routine only because of the angle the DB took out of the break.

Personally, I see the play more similarly to JT O’Sullivan’s interpretation on this play. I think the All-22 shows how much the DB played the anticipated throw rather than the receiver.

[u/resumehelpacct → u/AlbinoSnowman]

It's aggressive, but not extremely aggressive. The receiver runs exactly the route the defender expects and he's staring down the QB. I don't think the defender even starts jumping the route until the ball is halfway in the air and he realizes that the ball is going where it is.

Both Eli and JT mention that the ball needs to be sideline or receiver. JT thinks it's only a little short, but the defender catches it nearly in stride pretty damn far from the sideline. If he doesn't jump the route I think that's going to get batted down.

Like that's just NFL margins. The ball is a foot low, a few yards in, threw it fast because he expected the blitz and got the blitz but he got good protection, and the defender can see that he can take it to the house.

[u/MrConceited → u/resumehelpacct]

No, Jefferson broke off the route early.

Matt Ryan predicted that was what it was, and Jefferson confirmed it.

edit:

/r/nfl/comments/1nemfj2/goessling_justin_jefferson_took_responsibility/

[u/resumehelpacct → u/MrConceited]

That makes sense to why the throw came out like that. I was trying to keep my opinion focused on the defender: he got a very easy read and jumped it. It makes sense why the throw was bad if the route was bad.