JJ McCarthy Declares For NFL Draft
Well, it's the end of an era. Michigan quarterback JJ McCarthy has announced that he will forego his final year of eligibility and will enter the 2024 NFL Draft.
McCarthy will go down as the best quarterback in the history of Michigan football. Jim Harbaugh has said so and so do the numbers.
The junior from the Chicago area will finish his career at 27-1 as a starter with a 3-0 mark against Ohio State. He helped Michigan achieve back-to-back-to-back Big Ten titles and obviously put a cap on this year with a national title. As a junior, McCarthy completed 72.3 percent of his passes. As a sophomore and junior starter, McCarthy threw 44 touchdowns against just nine interceptions. He also had eight rushing touchdowns even though he wasn't asked to run the ball much. McCarthy has elite arm strength and is nearly elite overall as an athlete. To put it bluntly, he can do it all on the football field. Watch the clip below — not many QBs, at any level, making the play he made against Alabama in the Rose Bowl.
ESPN NFL Draft analyst Mel Kiper has McCarthy as the fifth quarterback on the 2024 draft board behind USC's Caleb Williams, North Carolina's Drake Maye, LSU's Jayden Daniels and Washington's Michael Penix Jr.
I haven't covered those other quarterbacks closely, but I guarantee that you will not find a better combination of on-field ability, off-field maturity, leadership, winning pedigree and overall good dudeness than you will in JJ McCarthy. Whoever drafts him is going to be happy for a long, long time.
