While Jayden Daniels has been the name most people in New England have been talking about in recent weeks, Michigan’s J.J. McCarthy remains one that is worth talking about.
A lot of that has to do with the intangibles, which are certainly in his favor. He’s not the flashiest or most athletically gifted player, but he fits two key needs the Patriots are obviously looking for.
He’s got a good arm, and he’s careful with the football. Both of those are obviously two key traits needed in today’s NFL, which makes him an intriguing player.
In his final season at Michigan in 2023 where he led the University to its first National Championship since 1997, he didn’t light things up, but he definitely played well. He threw 22 touchdowns and just four interceptions, with McCarthy completing 240-of-332 (72.3%) of his passes last season.
When asked about the fact he didn’t put up big numbers, the former Wolverine definitely had the right answer.
“The only stat I cared about was W’s,” McCarthy said via WBZ’s MAtt Geagan. “And we did pretty good in that category.”
Should New England go on to sign someone like Jacoby Brissett in the coming weeks when free agency kicks off, that’s sort of a best-case scenario for the lanky quarterback.
McCarthy came in at 6’2?, 219-pounds over the weekend, with the soon-to-be rookie putting together a good performance during the throwing drills. He’s also stronger than he looks, with McCarthy coming in second behind Joe Milton III in throwing velocity after he was measured at 61 mph, right behind Milton III who hit 62 mph.
However, like former Patriots quarterback Tom Brady, if the Patriots can buy time with a veteran and give McCarthy a season to get stronger and develop, it could eventually set him up for success either late in the year or into 2025. Obviously, this isn’t saying McCarthy is anywhere close to Brady’s level, but the process would be similar.
After all, Brady certainly wasn’t physically ready to handle the rigors of the NFL straight out of college. He was skinny coming out of the six round that year, but he got stronger as his rookie year went on and eventually ended up moving up and seeing action in mop-up duty during their Thanksgiving day loss to the Lions in 2000 while sitting behind then-QB, Drew Bledsoe.
That may be just what McCarthy needs if that’s the direction they decide to go.
The knock on McCarthy has been his touch and sometimes putting too much on his throws, but he showed enough over the weekend (and here) that with the right development, he may turn into a pretty good starter for someone.
Does he deserve to go top three? Maybe not. But in the end, missing out on the right player – if that’s how the Patriots ultimately view McCarthy – may outweigh the “value” risk that could see someone else take him instead.
That’s the complicated part of the draft, and the dilemma Eliot Wolf and Alonzo Highsmith will both face in the coming weeks as the Patriots continue pondering their options.
(EDITOR’S NOTE: The above appeared in a recent notebook column here.)
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Ian Logue is a Seacoast native and owner and senior writer for PatsFans.com, an independent media site covering the New England Patriots and has been running this site in one form or another since 1997.
