If John Harbaugh were picking between two Michigan-bred quarterbacks this week, the Giants would start J.J. McCarthy over Tom Brady.
Harbaugh, who made the change from Jameis Winston to McCarthy to start against the Texans, had some fun after Friday’s practice when using Brady as a random example of whether some roster moves can be made too soon or too early within the window of opportunity.
“If Tom Brady decided he wanted to come back from retirement — which, I doubt for one second he could, no matter what he thinks,” Harbaugh said, turning to look directly into the camera. “You heard me, Tom.”
Doubting Brady didn’t work out well for all the teams that let him fall to the No. 199 pick in the 2000 draft and then watched him win seven Super Bowls. Or for the teams that didn’t pursue him in 2020 free agency, when he jumped from the Patriots to the Buccaneers.
Brady, 49, threw his final pass in 2022. And if he wanted to unretire?
“I don’t think he’d be ready the first week, as much as you might want to put him in there,” Harbaugh said. “So, it wouldn’t be in the best interest to play the first week.”
Brady was 6-5 in his illustrious career against Harbaugh’s Ravens.
CB Paulson Adebo (knee) is expected to be activated off injured reserve after missing the past five games. His return Sunday will coincide with the loss of CB Greg Newsome II (concussion).
Adebo, who is in the second year of a three-year, $54 million contract, lost his starting job to Deonte Banks in training camp and allowed two catches on three targets off the bench when called upon Week 1.
“He’s ready to go,” Harbaugh said. “He’s a legit corner. He’s a cover corner, he tackles. He’s been a high-end corner in this league. I think he’s really determined to play that way. I think he’s finally probably healthy and ready to go. I can’t wait to see it. It looks like it’s going to be Sunday.”
Harbaugh explained for the first time his reasoning behind this week’s release of RB Najee Harris, who was the starter last week. He said it was not because Harris criticized the four-man rotation after the game.
“It was more about just, ‘All right, we’re going to set a course, and it’s hard to carry four backs,’ ” Harbaugh said. “There were some other moves we had to make to get guys on the roster.
“Like I told him, nothing against what he did. I thought he ran super hard. I didn’t think he had a lot of [running] room, in all fairness, in the plays he happened to have in the last couple of weeks, but it was just the direction we decided to go at this time going forward. So, nothing that he did or didn’t do.”
In addition to LB Tremaine Edmunds, who suffered a season-ending shoulder injury, and Newsome, the Giants could be without TE Theo Johnson (neck). He is doubtful.
Adebo (knee) is officially listed as questionable, along with RT Jermaine Eluemunor (calf), S Jevón Holland (concussion), S Tyler Nubin (neck) and OT Marcus Mbow (knee).
