J.J. McCarthy Scouting Report
- Watched: Ohio State (2022), TCU (2022), Rutgers, Minnesota, Michigan State
- Pros:
- Just turned 21, youngest passer in the draft class.
- Good athlete, light on his feet, does a nice job rolling out.
- Good vision, toughness, and contact balance as a runner, think his running ability could have been utilized more, though he is admittedly slender.
- Pretty good timing on most of his passes; particularly on deep passes/double moves.
- Keeps his eyes up when he rolls out, trying to identify passes on the move.
- I wouldn’t say he has pinpoint accuracy, but he throws a catchable ball most of the time; definitely stuff to work with there.
- In 2023, did a much better job of taking the easier passes, checking it down, etc.
- Throws with very strong velocity, though often does it unnecessarily.
- Does a good job selling play-action.
- Cons:
- Did a better job getting through progressions in 2023, but still susceptible to locking onto a read and not seeing beyond the WR and the CB.
- Tends to drop his eyes when pressure gets home, missing out on some passing opportunities.
- Every pass is thrown on a rope; doesn’t really even attempt to throw with touch much less show flashes of doing it well.
- While his passes are generally accurate enough to complete the pass, he usually throws to the WR’s body instead of leading them away from coverage.
- A lot of completely uncatchable passes, particularly sailing passes out of bounds when throwing to the sidelines.
- General:
- Plays in a pro-style offense and has experience taking snaps from under center.
- His offense barely utilized layup throws. Most QBs in this class average 5-10 per game while he averaged less than 2.
- Overall Take:
- Pro-readiness: 5th (out of 9)
- Potential: 4th
- Overall: 3rd
- Number Grade (out of 100): 79
- Despite playing in more of a pro-style offense than most of his peers in college, J.J. is likely a selection where his NFL team will need to be patient and hope to see him develop into a good starting QB. He’s the youngest passer in the class and has a lot of the physical tools you look for. He’s a good athlete, light on his feet, flexible, fast, and throws with good velocity. He plays hard, is considered one of those players that teammates rally around, and given his record as a starter, he will definitely check the box for being a winner. His passing chart is solid, throwing a catchable ball to all levels at a pretty decent rate. So why the second round grade? He generally struggled throwing the ball to the sidelines, often leaving passes inside or sailing them far over the receiver’s head and out of bounds. He doesn’t do a good job of leading his receivers; he gets it to them but very rarely has great ball placement. More critically, every pass is thrown on a rope; he doesn’t display the touch to throw over underneath coverage and doesn’t take heat off when throwing it short. If he doesn’t pan out in the NFL, I think these two issues will definitely be the culprit; you’re really gambling that he’ll develop in areas where he hasn’t even really shown flashes yet. And his potential ceiling isn’t really high enough to make me super excited to take that leap of faith. Lastly, I don’t really love either of my comps for J.J.; he was a really difficult one to find a good comparison for in my opinion, but he sort of reminds me of Ryan Fitzpatrick if Fitzpatrick had the arm strength to actually make the throws that he attempted.
- NFL Comparisons:
- Most Likely Comp: Ryan Fitzpatrick
- Peak Comp: Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger Baker Mayfield
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