EXCLUSIVE
J.J. McCarthy is worth a top 10 NFL Draft pick and has all the right ingredients to turn his ‘cupcake’ into a ‘wedding cake,’ insider says
If Drake Maye is the most debated quarterback in the NFL Draft, J.J. McCarthy is a close second.
Picking McCarthy in the first round on April 25 in Detroit should be easy.
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He just won a national championship with Michigan.
Jim Harbaugh, McCarthy's coach with the Wolverines and now head coach for the Los Angeles Chargers, has praised McCarthy's talent and leadership.
But with Caleb Williams a lock at No. 1 to Chicago and Jayden Daniels coming off a Heisman Trophy season, football fans and some draft analysts have questioned McCarthy's NFL value.
ESPN's latest mock draft has McCarthy going to Minnesota with the No. 5 overall pick.
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In that mock, the Vikings would trade with Harbaugh's Chargers, which would represent total irony.
NFL Network analyst Daniel Jeremiah exclusively told talkSPORT that McCarthy is his "fourth quarterback" in the draft.
Jeremiah acknowledged the questions about drafting McCarthy so high.
But after he threw for 6,226 yards, 49 touchdowns and just 11 interceptions in three years at Michigan, teams risk passing on a proven college QB who won big games and exceled under pressure in 2023.
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"I anticipate he’ll be the fourth quarterback to go," Jeremiah said. "But I think people look at it and say, ‘OK, he’s your 20th player, why in the world would a team take him up there in the top five, if you don’t think he’s a top five, top 10 players?’
"To me, there’s really not that much difference. If you’re comfortable taking your quarterback at 15, you’re going to be comfortable taking him all the way up there, because you’re tying yourself to him.
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"And if you feel like he has starter traits, starter tools, then you’re going to be comfortable with that."
Williams has dual-threat pro talent and has been compared to everyone from Patrick Mahomes to Aaron Rodgers.
Daniels is more athletic than Maye, while Maye possesses a huge arm and has downfield big-play potential.
Then there's McCarthy, who went 28-1 the last two seasons but ran a Michigan offense that utilized him more as a game manager than a dangerous offensive weapon.
McCarthy has all the tools to excel at the next level.
If he does, it will prove that he was contained at Michigan and has much more in his repertoire to display in the NFL.
Potentially just like a former Wolverines QB who was forced to wait until the No. 199 overall draft pick, then won seven Super Bowls with New England and Tampa Bay.
"The way that I’ve explained it with him (McCarthy) is all the ingredients are there," Jeremiah said. "You can look at all the other top quarterbacks, they just have a larger sample size.
"So the analogy I’ve used is the ingredients are the same but those guys have used more of the ingredients to bake a wedding cake, where as J.J. McCarthy has a cupcake.
"He hasn’t done quite as much but you can identify the same ingredients."
McCarthy was indeed worth a top 10 pick.
J.J. is now a Viking after Minnesota moved up a pick after swapping selections with the New York Jets to take him 10th overall.
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The Vikings traded the No. 11 overall pick, a fourth-round pick and a fifth-round pick to the Jets for No. 10 overall, and pick No. 203.
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