J.J. McCarthy was behind center for Michigan’s runs to and through the College Football Playoff, putting him front and center during the college season as the Wolverines kept churning out wins.
They were powered by a classic Harbaugh-ized offense: pound the rock until the defense bursts or at least get to third-and-manageable and further into the depths of Michigan’s hyper-designed gameplan. This commitment to a certain style is not a surprise to anyone that has watched a Jim Harbaugh-coached team, but it makes McCarthy an enigma for NFL talent evaluators attempting to discern as much as possible from film that consisted of a dozen or so dropbacks, maybe, in a given game.
On that sample pack-sized collection of plays, McCarthy showed a great understanding of what Michigan was trying to accomplish, even on examples of him having to do nothing but hand the ball off after the snap. He often was given the reins to change plays based on defensive looks — Michigan had a field day on the ground against Penn State, when McCarthy attempted only eight passes but was often communicating and signaling play changes before the snap in difficult third-down and backed-up situations.
McCarthy was officially listed at 202 pounds at Michigan, though he weighed in at 219 at the combine on Saturday, according to Yahoo Sports’ Charles Robinson. That could be significant in determining how successful he is at the NFL level. Before we get to that, let’s look at his game.
When asked to drop back, McCarthy shows good arm strength and the ability to throw on the move (he prefers to go to his right) and mitigate sacks with his pocket movement and athleticism, plus he also has the willingness to fire the ball over the middle of the field.
Showing flashes of anticipation and plenty of zip to drive into tight spaces, McCarthy was more than comfortable working in the pocket, or extending for another half-second, to drive on in-breaking throws and hunt explosive plays. He plays with a proper clock in his head, even despite the lower amount of times he was asked to drop back in his time in Ann Arbor, and a feel for when he has to get the ball out of his hands, often being able to avoid taking negative plays with good balance and footwork when moving around in the pocket. It would come up in games like the aforementioned Penn State tilt, when Michigan’s offensive tackles were overmatched by opposing pass rushers, but McCarthy, especially on early downs, showed a mature feel for getting the ball out of his hands and saving the offense from a negative play.
McCarthy has a tendency to seek out the chunkier of two options that would at times get him in trouble on passing downs like third-and-long, taking sacks as he tried to find an option past the first-down marker, aggressive habits that can create explosive plays for a defense. But I personally think it’s not the worst thing to have a quarterback that is willing to push the ball, especially if they do a pretty decent job of mitigating sacks in the first place — which holds up when you consider McCarthy’s career sack (4.3%) and pressure-to-sack (14.3%) rates both rank third among the consensus top seven QB prospects and are well within the “good” range when comparing to past highly drafted prospects. The fact McCarthy ranks at or near the top in every air yard-per-attempt category is a solid combination of aggression while not taking too many negative plays as well.
There are times McCarthy can perhaps put his pedal to the metal a bit too hard, really gearing up for that high-velocity pass attempt, putting an extra little oomph and being just a little bit late for the throwing window. Though he did show more glimpses of layering throws with touch and looping liners as opposed to a line drives in all directions.
While throwing over the middle is such an important part of quarterback’s games and creating a sustainable offensive ecosystem, McCarthy can have more issues when he attempts to drive the ball to the outside and down the field on outbreaking routes. When a quarterback typically struggles with this, it’s because of a lack of arm strength or willingness to consistently drive on throws. With McCarthy, his misses seem to stem from a tendency to overstride on throws, creating an elongated base which can affect the quarterback’s balance and the angle of their front shoulder.