ESPN’s Marcus Spears Weighs In on Rams’ PI & Giants Trading for JJ McCarthy

Marcus Spears doesn't think the ending of Sunday night's Broncos-Rams game needs a debate. It needs a correction.

Rich asked the ESPN analyst to chime in on the late pass interference flag in Denver, and Spears didn't hesitate. "No, it wasn't. It wasn't," he said. "I don't think we even need to have a debate on that. The ref messed the call up."

Spears has seen every angle, and his conclusion is the same from all of them. "That wasn't pass interference. It should have been an interception and the Rams should have won the game, but that happens in the NFL," he said. He did tip his cap to Pat Bryant for the performance. "Bryant did a phenomenal job at selling it."

What bothered Spears most wasn't the result. It was what the call took from the defender. "The thing that I hate most about that play, Rich, is that it stole that moment away from that kid," he said. It should have been a great play by a young player stepping into a big-time role in a big-time moment, and instead what was probably the biggest play of his NFL career "was taken away because of a miscall, a bad call."

Rich then pivoted to the other Michigan national champion in the news: JJ McCarthy, just acquired by the Giants for a fifth-round pick. The Giants could have gone for a veteran, Rich noted, or even grabbed Joe Milton off the Cowboys' practice squad. Why McCarthy, and what does it look like?

Spears started with draft pedigree. "He still has a first round draft pick attached to him," he said, and teams always think that if a player was evaluated that highly, "there's something in there that we maybe can get out of him to play at a very high level."

The second layer is the quarterback room. With Jaxson Dart going down, Spears framed McCarthy as a young quarterback who could develop into a phenomenal backup. "We're starting to understand how important backup quarterbacks are in this league," he said. Dart has been injured a lot, and that is a matter the Giants have to address.

Spears was quick to credit the current option. Jameis Winston is in that room, and Spears said to take nothing away from him. But a young quarterback the Giants can grow, groom and develop gives them a longer-term answer either way.

His scenarios covered both outcomes. If Dart can't stay healthy as the season and his career go along, McCarthy could be an answer. If Dart does get healthy, the Giants have "a really good first round number two" who either becomes trade bait down the line or settles in as the backup, "and now you feel good about your room."

For a fifth-round pick, that's a lot of different levels of thinking. Spears seems to think the Giants did all of it.