J.J. McCarthy's Draft Position Could Impact Chargers' Ability To Trade Pick In First Round

Can LA get a deal done?

Intriguingly, one of new Los Angeles Chargers head coach Jim Harbaugh's most valuable players on his old team, the reigning national champion University of Michigan Wolverines, could directly affect his new one.

During the latest episode of the essential Bolts podcast Bleav In Chargers, Matt "Money" Smith detailed to ex-four-time Pro Bowl Chargers fullback Lorenzo Neal how the relative draft position of Harbaugh's Michigan quarterback J.J. McCarthy could (indirectly) dictate how deftly the Chargers front office might be able to maneuver, with regards to possibly trading down from their current No. 5 pick.

"There's saboteurs everywhere [ahead of the draft]," Smith allowed. It's misdirection. It's agents trying to talk up their guys to get them off the draft board. So they can earn their money. It's teams asking you for favors to try to make their picks sound more valuable so they can trade down. I mean, everybody's got an agenda. So setting that as a pretext, I can't count how many times we've come out of a combine and, 'Oh, Malik Willis, now he might go in the first or Will Levis. Oh, he is top five pick now.' These things happen and we typically fall for them because we believe in quarterback [as] a premium position."

"But I do believe this year that the head coach of the Chargers was correct even though he was laughed at when he said it. And he embellished a little bit by saying J.J. McCarthy is the number one quarterback in the draft, but J.J. McCarthy is going to go in the first round. He's going to go high. That's that's probably my biggest takeaway because I think that directly affects the number five pick [in the] top ten. Is he a top ten pick?"

Harbaugh recently claimed that McCarthy is the best overall play caller among this year's starry crop. This is a group that includes USC Trojans quarterback Caleb Williams, North Carolina Tar Heels quarterback Drake Maye, and LSU Tigers quarterback Jayden Daniels, all of whom are expected by picked ahead of McCarthy.

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