Heading into the Houston Texans' Week 7 matchup against the New York Giants, the opposition has made an eye-catching shake-up at their quarterback position.
The Giants have been rolling out Jameis Winston as their starting quarterback ever since Jaxson Dart went down with a knee injury in Week 2. However, New York head coach John Harbaugh announced Wednesday that J.J. McCarthy would start under center against Houston.
McCarthy had previously made an appearance at the end of the Giants' Week 6 game against the New Orleans Saints, in which he performed relatively well in the reps he was given: he completed 11 of 21 passes for 243 yards with a touchdown, an interception, and had two rushing attempts for 26 yards.
So now, the Giants have seen enough out of the 23-year-old quarterback from that showing to warrant another start in Week 7 on the road against Houston.
However, heading into that Week 7 duel against the Giants, it doesn't seem like Texans head coach DeMeco Ryans is too concerned about who's starting at quarterback for New York.
What DeMeco Ryans Said About Giants' J.J. McCarthy Decision
Ryans was asked during his Wednesday presser about his thoughts on the Giants starting J.J. McCarthy for their Week 7 matchup against Houston.
But overall, the focus remained more upon the Texans' defense being better prepared for the week ahead, no matter who the opposing quarterback is.
"For us, it really doesn't matter who plays quarterback," Ryans said of the Giants' quarterback decision. "For us, defensively, it's been about our process, and how do we do things that we do the right way, and do them well."
"So, whoever's at quarterback doesn't really dictate what we're going to do defensively. It's about us. We got to play better defensively, because it wasn't good enough in our last outing."
Of course, Ryans and the Texans won't be heading into this game without doing their due diligence scouting and studying film on McCarthy.
Knowing that he will be the guy under center could make Houston's preparation a little bit easier by having a bit more clarity on how New York's offense will look. Or, perhaps that pre-game prep can be a little more challenging without having as vast of a sample size with McCarthy as the Giants' starting quarterback.
But no matter what the Giants' quarterback looks like, that's not where Ryans head is sitting at a few days out from their Week 7 matchup. More than anything, Ryans clearly wasn't too satisfied with the output his defense showcased last week against the Jaguars–– and he wants those lapses ironed out ASAP.
In Week 6, Houston allowed Jacksonville to become the third team to score 30-plus points on them in a single game on the year. For reference, that feat only happened once over the course of the 2025 season in their Week 18 matchup against the Indianapolis Colts.
So rather than putting a ton of focus on the external factors in terms of who the Giants will have under center, Ryans is taking a different approach. He's more locked in on how he and his team can take the necessary steps forward to be the elite defense that they proved to be capable of all of last season.
Maybe this game can present a get-right opportunity for the Texans' defense and their hopes of lifting back to that elite level they stood at all of last season. But if it isn't, the conversations around exactly what's happened to this side of the ball in Houston will only continue to get louder.
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