No quarterback has seen their stock rise more since the end of the college football season than Michigan’s J.J. McCarthy. After leading the Wolverines to a national championship, McCarthy announced he was entering the 2024 NFL draft.
The early talk of draft season was that Caleb Williams (USC), Drake Maye (North Carolina) and Jayden Daniels (LSU) were head and shoulders above the rest of the quarterback class, with McCarthy battling Michael Penix Jr. (Washington) and Bo Nix (Oregon) to be the fourth quarterback selected.
However, in recent weeks, the buzz surrounding McCarthy has grown. Some of that is due to the comments of his college coach, Jim Harbaugh, now the coach of the Los Angeles Chargers.
Recently, some NFL evaluators reportedly told Tom Pelissero of the NFL Network that they could see Washington general manager Adam Peters choosing McCarthy over Maye and Daniels.
It’s important to remember we’re in the thick of lying season. No teams are going to tell the truth about their intentions ahead of the draft, but sometimes you can learn of a team’s interest through other means.
On Tuesday, McCarthy’s personal quarterback coach, Greg Holcomb, joined the “Kevin Sheehan Show” on Team 980 to discuss Washington’s perceived interest in the former Michigan star.
“It’s really crazy,” Holcomb said via Audacy.
“His stock has just skyrocketed post combine and pro day and so. I think there are teams that are [looking] to move up to try and get him. I do know that [his father] told me there was a very positive conversation with the Washington people at the NFL combine, that they just said a lot of the really nice things about J.J. that he checks all of the boxes, and it would be hard for anybody to pass on him.”
He gave Sheehan a little more info regarding Washington.
“I don’t want to give away too much information, but the family seems like they would be very happy if he landed there,” Holcomb said. “And I’ll be honest, there are a handful of cities if he landed that they wouldn’t be very happy, as you can imagine. I’m sure everyone in the draft has their dream cities and programs……..at No. 2, I’ll tell you everyone would be very happy.”
Would Washington fans be happy? McCarthy often gets overlooked because Michigan was a run-heavy team in college. However, if you go back and watch every game, McCarthy was clutch on third downs and has a strong, accurate arm. There’s a lot to like about McCarthy.