Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports
The NFL's evaluation of Michigan QB J.J. McCarthy may shock you
We are officially in the thick of the NFL Draft season as NFL decision-makers form their evaluations of the 2024 draft class.
One player that I'm hearing is gaining a lot of momentum across the NFL is Michigan QB J.J. McCarthy.
The NFL's view on J.J. McCarthy
The QBs in the 2024 NFL Draft class are getting a lot of love throughout the NFL, as teams go through their elvautions. Many on social media have viewed a large drop off after the consensus top three QB; USC's Caleb Williams, North Carolina's Drake Maye, and LSU's Jayden Daniels. But the more I talk to people around the NFL, the more I don't think that's how the league is viewing this class.
One high up NFC executive shared his disagreement with that notion by saying:
"I think there is a significant drop off in this QB class, but most around the league think its after the fourth quarterback, not the third. Williams, Maye, Daniels and McCarthy (Michigan's J.J. McCarthy) are heads and shoulders better prospects then the next group of guys."
Everything I'm hearing around the league echos that statement. I've yet to hear of any NFL team having McCarthy lower than QB four on their board and I've confirmed at least three teams view him as top three QB in this class. As my tweet at the top of this article stated, I've been told that he is the QB 2 on one NFC teams board, but I've also heard of two other teams who have him a their QB 3 in this class. One of those teams coming from the NFC and one coming from the AFC. All three of those teams have first round picks inside the top 20.
McCarthy is a polarizing prospect who many are confused why it's being reported that he will hear his name called in the first round of the 2024 NFL Draft. He wasn't used at the same level as the top three QBs in this class, but was able to showcase his arm talent enough to warrant the ceiling projections NFL teams see in him. McCarthy just turned 21 in January making him the youngest of the top QBs in this years class. I recently spoke to a current NFL scout to get his perspective on why he believes the NFL is so high on McCarthy.
"Every team has to decide whether their priority for a certain draft pick is immediate production or future production. The preference is to find prospects that offer both, but you have to know your roster well enough to know if you can wait for a more raw prospect to develop. Making that decision at the QB position is even tougher, but I personally believe most, if not all, teams give the priority to future production. And that's the case with McCarthy; take Penix (Washington's Michael Penix Jr.) and Nix (Oregon's Bo Nix), for example. Do those guys give your team a better chance to win week 1 of the 2024 season compared to McCarthy? Absolutely. Both were given more responsibility in college and have more film to help teams project their day-one impact. A lot of the evaluation on McCarthy is projecting what we see in small doses to the NFL level and at a higher rate. And McCarthy has flashes of being able to check all the boxes in today's game: Arm Talent, Accuracy, Mobility, Intelligence, and everyone who's been around the kid raves about his leadership skills. All of that in a 21-year-old shouldn't surprise people that he is getting the love he's getting around the league. I'd be shocked if he isn't a top 20 pick when it's all said and done.”
You don't have to like it, but it seems the question with McCarthy's draft stock has surpassed the question of "Will he be drafted in the first round?" And it seems the new questions is "How high in round one will he go?"
