What JJ McCarthy must show NFL scouts throughout season

Michigan QB JJ McCarthy is a bit of a controversial prospect in NFL Draft circles considering his play and role in Ann Arbor. However, Jordan Reid and Matt Miller suggest that that knock on him isn’t entirely his fault.

Reid and Miller spoke with Field Yates on ‘First Draft’ about the stocks of several college quarterbacks like McCarthy. When it came to the Wolverines’ QB1, Reid started by noting that we haven’t yet seen too much from him considering the prime pieces that are around him and that he’s usually always working with a lead because of that.

“The thing with JJ is that he’s a perfect compliment for what they want to do. He’s awesome off of play-action. I think, this year, he’s completing, like, over 85% of his passes off of play-action,” said Reid. “We know, Harbaugh? He wants to run the ball. Blake Corum, Donovan Edwards – a fantastic tandem that they have. Roman Wilson, a receiver that he’s pushing the ball to quite frequently that’s playing really well. I still think they’re kind of holding JJ’s hand a little bit.”

Miller agreed with that sentiment and sees how it’s going to hurt McCarthy’s evaluation. Regardless of what he does, some NFL scouts and decision-makers are going to have their concerns for no other reason than his circumstances at Michigan.

“I think JJ McCarthy is like a sexy Brock Purdy. No matter what he does, people are going to point to, ‘Well, it’s the scheme.’ Or, ‘Well, it’s the level of competition,'” said Miller. “He’s just really good at what he’s asked to do. He’s going to be one of those players where we look back in February and March and we’re going to say, ‘There’s some questions here’ because Harbaugh doesn’t ask him to do a whole lot.

“I don’t want to knock JJ McCarthy for being really good at what he’s asked to do because he’s great at executing that scheme,” he continued.

So, what can McCarthy do as the leader of the nation’s second-ranked team to rid himself of this critique?

To Reid, it starts with success whenever Michigan does find itself trailing in a contest. While there are few questions about his ability and intangibles, he wants to see McCarthy handle some hardship and overcome it to play well when his team needs him to.

“I want to see JJ face some adversity like what we saw with CJ Stroud last year. I want to see him get down in a game and have to throw the ball,” said Reid. “Let’s see Michigan get down 10 or 14 points early where a team forces him to throw the ball. That’s something that we haven’t seen since the TCU game last year and we saw he didn’t play very well in the College Football Playoff last year.

“I want to see more moments where he has to face some adversity,” he continued. “As far as the traits, JJ has outstanding traits. We just haven’t seen him face that mountain of adversity where he’s forced to throw the ball.”