thelesterlee
Every year it feels like a random, generic college QB—whose photos look like their mother dressed them for middle school picture day—finds themselves climbing up NFL draft boards based on intangibles. This season, it’s JJ McCarthy out of Michigan who recent reports claim may go high as no. 2 to the Washington Commanders despite not, in any way, being the 2nd best player available in the draft.
Please do not share this video of JJ McCarthy throwing an interception. pic.twitter.com/CRychYRBcY
— Black Shoe Diaries (@BSDtweet) September 17, 2023
Before we get into what NFL GMs are forcing themselves to see in him, we have to talk about whether JJ McCarthy is actually good or not.
Is JJ McCarthy even a good quarterback?
McCarthy led Michigan to 3 consecutive Big Ten Conference Titles. He won the National Championship this year and was the MVP of the Rose Bowl in a 3-touchdown win over Alabama. And none of that success had anything to do with McCarthy.
Michigan had the best defense in the country. Teams averaged less than 10 points against Jim Harbaugh’s squad.
Jim Harbaugh didn’t even trust McCarthy to be a quarterback. McCarthy threw the ball 8 times against Penn State this year. Caleb Williams is going no. 1 overall and if he ever had a game where he threw only 8 passes, it would be because a linebacker sent him to the locker room after USC’s first drive.
Most of the McCarthy film I’ve seen is him handing the ball off or throwing a wobbly pass that moves through the air like a Nerf ball.
#Wolverines QB JJ McCarthy gets pressured at the back of his drop & does a good job navigating the pressure by stepping up & out to get some space
Then when trying to scramble, he gets careless (2 hands on the🪨JJ) with protecting the🏈and gets away with a lucky fumble!#GoBlue pic.twitter.com/M8smjN7NQv
— Jordan Silveira (@JordanTSilveira) November 29, 2023
No, JJ McCarthy isn’t good enough to just throw onto the Washington Commanders Week 1 and start winning football games right away. He isn’t good enough—yet—and teams are obsessed with the ‘yet’.
Why are NFL GMs obsessed with JJ McCarthy?
Every NFL insider is reporting that Washington is all in on taking McCarthy with the no. 2 pick but the New England Patriots, Minnesota Vikings and Denver Broncos have all praised the young man despite my inability to find any real evidence he is any better than like, Sam Darnold, a guy no one would draft no. 2 overall if his QB services were draftable this year.
It’s being reported the New York Giants are planning a private Easter Sunday workout with JJ McCarthy. I do not think Daniel Jones is very good but neither is JJ McCarthy. They’d be replacing a guy who has shown he is mid with a guy who cannot wait to let them know he is mid too.
JJ is going no. 2 not because of his arm talent or his ability to read a defense.
It’s because he walks and talks like he’s a franchise quarterback.
It’s why teams have walked away from their meetings with him believing he’s god’s gift to the sport. The kid is just realllyyyyy good at interviewing which is the most underrated skill of the draft.
At the end of the day, these are still all just job interviews and McCarthy is walking in with a National Championship on his resume, Jim Harbaugh as his reference and some ‘I’m the best candidate for the position’ energy that is tricking NFL front offices into believing he’s a ‘winner’ or whatever unmeasurable gene they think successful quarterbacks possess.
Meanwhile, a guy like Michael Penix Jr—who led the 2nd most prolific passing offense in the country this season and a guy who was directly responsible for Washington making the playoffs—is going to fall out of the first round because he’s suffered injuries playing a sport in which everyone suffers injuries and because he lacks mobility in the modern NFL
Kirk Cousins is a 35-year-old coming off a torn Achilles and the Atlanta Falcons just gave him a 4-year, $180 million contract.
Last season, Atlanta won 7 games but Vegas has their win total at 10.5. Atlanta instantly becomes one of the best teams in the NFC after signing an elderly man who has 1 playoff victory in 12 years and was never very athletic to begin with and certainly won’t be after a torn Achilles but 23-year old Michael Penix Jr isn’t even a first-round talent because he’s been hurt and he’s slow.
And probably because he wears a durag and freestyles on the sidelines to hype up his teammates which Kirk Cousins and JJ McCarthy famously do not.
Honestly, all this McCarthy love sucks most for Drake Maye who, like Isiah Thomas in The Last Dance, meets all the criteria but is not being selected.
Drake Maye’s biggest flaw is having more tape of him throwing than McCarthy. JJ is a mystery box full of unlimited potential while teams have seen the good, the bad and the ugly with Maye already.
So the trick is to be pale, win a national championship with a historically great defense, play for a coach everyone universally respects and shake the hell out of GM’s hands.
Shout out to Dan Quinn for getting the Washington Commanders job a couple months ago. I hope you have some sort of month-by-month payment plan with a landlord because McCarthy is 100000% getting you fired before the 49ers trade a 7th-round pick for him so Kyle Shanahan can Clockwork Orange him into a decent backup.
Is JJ McCarthy even a good quarterback? Leave a comment below. Respond on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram. Or shoot me an email at Deadseriousmailbag@gmail.com. Let’s chat, bay-beeeee. Let me know if you think JJ is going to be an All-Star at some point so I can get a good laugh in.
