ORLANDO, Fla. – Michigan quarterback J.J. McCarthy is a “killer” who wouldn’t be fazed by the highs or the lows of playing in a major market like New York, Chargers coach Jim Harbaugh said Monday.
The former Wolverines coach said at the 2024 NFL Owners Meeting that McCarthy is a “perfect blend” of his parents, Jim and Megan McCarthy, with qualities from both that make him uniquely capable of handling his position and the spotlight.
“Jim McCarthy: great gift of personality and empathy and competitiveness and just bigger than life,” Harbaugh said. “And then there’s Megan. And she is quiet but, like, a stone-cold killer. If somebody were to do something to the family, you would see a tiger. And that’s J.J.”
The Giants hold the No. 6 overall pick and are one of the teams who have shown strong interest in the national champion QB. Harbaugh said the conditions and fan sentiment surrounding McCarthy won’t phase him wherever he is, good or bad.
“It doesn’t matter,” Harbaugh said. “I mean, they [the fans] could be adulating him — ‘J.J. We love J.J.’ Or [he’s] ]being booed. Or being hit. And then this killer comes out. Whether it’s good, whether it’s bad, he’s got an extra gear, especially when he’s challenged.
“And you also see the big personality and will do anything for another guy on the team,” he added. “Or [when] a small kid that walks up to him. My son Jack feels like J.J. is one of his really good friends.”
Harbaugh paused.
“He’s incredible,” he said. “So big market, small market, cold weather, hot weather — it won’t matter. I think he’s the best quarterback in the draft. And that’s just what I think, just my opinion. He’s the one who plays quarterback of all the quarterbacks that are in the draft. There’s great quarterbacks in the draft. I think he plays quarterback the best of any quarterback in the draft.”
In late February, during McCarthy’s NFL Combine meeting with the Giants, the coaches actually translated one of McCarthy’s Michigan plays into Brian Daboll’s offensive terminology to show him what it would be like to run their system.
McCarthy has since taken a top 30 visit to East Rutherford, N.J., to help the team round out its evaluation of one of the more intriguing QB prospects in this class.
“I really loved how I drew up a play that I could run in every situation: third down, fourth down, first and second – all that good stuff – and then the [Giants] coaches were kind of changing my verbiage and making it their own,” McCarthy said at the NFL Combine. “It was really nice to kind of get a feel of what that offense would be like. And it was actually a lot more simple. So it was good.”
McCarthy then performed impressively at Michigan’s pro day last week, and Harbaugh said NFL teams were raving about him throughout the day. The Minnesota Vikings (pick No. 11) are also a team that has been linked strongly to McCarthy. They even acquired an extra first-round pick at No. 23 in a trade with Houston, potentially to move up the draft board.
“Like I predicted, once they were around him, I was hearing the stories about how he is on the board, how he is on the field, the little things, the intangibles,” Harbaugh said. “I mean it was absolutely no surprise whatsoever. But there was raving. And it was great to hear, incredible to hear. And I know it was sincere. It was unsolicited. I mean it was [coming from] numerous, numerous GMs. Numerous head coaches couldn’t say enough good things.”
Harbaugh has something to gain, of course, if a team trades over the Chargers’ No. 5 overall pick to get McCarthy or wants to give assets to Los Angeles to move up. So he was stirring the NFL Draft pot on Monday, too.
He is well aware that the league’s rabid chase for the next great quarterback can help him build his roster around Justin Herbert.
“There’s gonna be a great player at five,” Harbaugh said. “In some ways, there’s talk of four quarterbacks going in the first four picks. Boy if that happens, that pick really becomes like the No. 1 pick in the draft. If four quarterbacks go in the first four picks, that’s not like the fifth pick anymore. That’s like the No. 1 pick in the draft for teams that have a great quarterback already.
“We’ll see,” he continued. “Maybe four quarterbacks don’t go in a row. It’s unprecedented that’s ever happened, but maybe there’s still another quarterback there when the fifth pick comes around and maybe somebody wants to [trade up]. That would be like the No. 1 pick. It wouldn’t be like the calculator for the fifth pick anymore.”
That was a good effort to drive up the value of the Chargers’ pick. McCarthy’s value doesn’t seem like it can get any higher, meanwhile, as the NFL Draft looms only one month away.
