Matt Miller projects J.J. McCarthy to be top 15 pick

ESPN’s Matt Miller is projecting J.J. McCarthy to have a short wait when the 2024 NFL Draft rolls around in a little more than two months.

The former Michigan Wolverines star has been mocked anywhere from the top five to the third round over the last couple of months. After speaking with a myriad of people in the know, Miller believes McCarthy will be a top 15 pick when the time comes, which may come as a surprise to some.

“I know this is going to surprise a lot of people, but I truly believe this, that he will be a top 15 draft pick,” Miller stated, via ESPN’s College GameDay Podcast. “Evaluators are in love with the tools, and with the mental make-up. There’s this belief that at Michigan, he was kind of you know, there were guard rails put up for him, because they had such a great run game. They had an offensive line that could just overpower people. We saw that in the second half against Penn State. He didn’t attempt a pass that wasn’t called back for a penalty. So I think that right now, you know with McCarthy, it’s more the things that you don’t know, you’re comfortable with, and you can kind of excuse those away.

“Michigan didn’t throw the ball a lot. Outside of Roman Wilson, they didn’t really have an established wide receiver. It’s not the way Jim Harbaugh was running that offense. They were playing to win games, not showcase J.J. McCarthy as a draft prospect. So I think those question marks about J.J. that we’ll have heading into the Combine are ones that you know, people are pretty comfortable with. He lost one game in college football. That gets brought up when you talk to scouts about J.J. McCarthy all of the time. One game. So he’s a leader, he’s a winner. The arm strength and athleticism are really good as well. … Where things are right now for him, I would say he pretty comfortably goes in that first half of the first round.”

Alas, it doesn’t seem as if Miller believes McCarthy can break into that top three where Caleb Williams, Drake Maye and Jayden Daniels are being featured, but if the former Wolverines star goes in the first half of the first round, that would be considered a win for the quarterback.

Time will tell who takes a shot on J.J. McCarthy, but it’s evident NFL evaluators believe the former Michigan star has the tools to succeed in the NFL.