The 2024 NFL Draft is here, making it an excellent time to highlight some of the class' best players with scouting reports. Each report will include strengths, weaknesses and background information.
Here's our report on J.J. McCarthy.
Based on his 2022 and 2023 Michigan tape, McCarthy is much more of a developmental prospect than a Week-1-ready starter at the next level. He may never be more than a quality starter on a good team with multiple offensive weapons and a strong offensive line.
His tape in college showed an efficient system quarterback lacking any special throwing or athletic traits. However, it would be fair to say that play extension with the ability to make well-placed throws on the move was a strength of his game, in addition to plus athleticism to scramble for first downs when demanded. He is more of a play extender than a play creator, but that is a meaningful part of his game and showed up throughout this tape. That will be strongly factored into his projection and transition to the NFL.
One trait that consistently showed up on tape — a critical one as you project McCarthy to the next level — was an efficient and clean pocket movement to find space to deliver the ball. McCarthy did not show higher-level arm talent, with the result being that he needed to be on balance with a firm base to throw the ball effectively and to have any chance to drive the ball with any kind of velocity (in the same way Kenny Pickett was coming out of Pitt).
When McCarthy was clean in the pocket and could play in rhythm with room to step up, the ball came out well, but that is not realistic to expect consistently at the next level. There will be legitimate questions regarding McCarthy’s ability to function effectively in muddied and noisy pockets with bodies around him. His tape did not show much efficient pocket movement to navigate and reset, nor did it show any ability to make off-platform throws.
My sense watching McCarthy is he projects to the NFL as much more of a system-based quarterback who will be team- and scheme-specific to play at a relatively consistent level, rather than a dynamic playmaker with either his arm or his legs (although he does have plus athletic ability). It would not surprise me if McCarthy became a quality starter down the road given the overall efficiency with which he played in college and with a more refined sense of timing and rhythm in a well-schemed passing game.
McCarthy spent his last prep season at IMG Academy in Florida, coming out as a 4-star recruit. He became the starter at Michigan in his sophomore season and finished his career with 28 starts and a national championship in 2023.
A defining feature of the Michigan passing game was play-action, with McCarthy executing with a high level of efficiency: 61-80 (76.3 percent) and 10.7 yards per attempt. The large majority of his play-action throws came out of the shotgun.
McCarthy was at his best throwing between the numbers and the hashes, where his body and his feet were aligned and where he could generate some drive and velocity. McCarthy threw the ball very well vs. Michigan State and Purdue. A 22-yard touchdown pass to Colston Loveland vs. Michigan State was one of McCarthy’s best throws of the season: a decisive, aggressive seam throw with good velocity and precise ball placement. The ball came out with a tighter spiral and more juice, and he threw the ball much better on the run with some excellent throws to his left.
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