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J.J. McCarthy a first-rounder headed to playoff team in Dane Brugler's latest 2024 mock draft

Anthony Broomeby:Anthony Broome•11/29/23•

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Matt Krohn-USA TODAY Sports

The Michigan Wolverines have a shot at playing as many three games over the next month-plus with a Big Ten Championship and a potential trip to the College Football Playoff on the way. That means the microscope will be on junior quarterback J.J. McCarthy as much as it has this season.

With that spotlight comes NFL evaluators keeping a close eye on what McCarthy and Michigan do over the next month or so. Heading into what appears to be a loaded quarterback class in the 2024 NFL Draft, The Athletic’s Dane Brugler has McCarthy as a first-round pick.

In his scenario, he has McCarthy heading to the Seattle Seahawks at No. 22 overall. He would head to a winning organization with plenty of playmakers around him like wide receivers D.K. Metcalf, Tyler Lockett and Jaxon Smith-Njigba.

“McCarthy is a polarizing prospect,” Brugler wrote. “He has all the tools, and NFL coaches will love the intangibles, but evaluators want to see him put the offense on his back and take over games. It’s not that he can’t, it’s that he hasn’t really needed to given Michigan’s play style and schedule.

“General manager John Schneider and head coach Pete Carroll see Seattle as a win-now team, but at some point, they will invest in a young quarterback to develop.”

McCarthy has another season of eligibility remaining at Michigan should he choose to come back, which remains on the table. Most outlets in recent weeks have tabbed him as a mid-to-late first-round prospect that has top-ten potential.

USC’s Caleb Williams and North Carolina’s Drake Maye are considered the consensus top-two prospects at the quarterback position, but there is plenty of fluidity from there. Michigan’s signal-caller could certainly rise up boards with a strong postseason and athletic testing in the process should he decide to come out. He finds himself in a cluster of guys like Texas’ Quinn Ewers, LSU’s Jayden Daniels and others in the mix for QB3.

ESPN’s Field Yates said that McCarthy is the toughest QB prospect to rank currently given a lack of gaud numbers.

“It’s McCarthy, but some of the reasoning is outside of his power,” he wrote. “He is third in the country in QBR (90.8), but Michigan’s schedule this season has been the easiest for any legitimate playoff contender. He threw a combined 28 passes for 208 yards, one touchdown pass and zero interceptions in two ranked matchups — at Penn State in Week 11 and against Ohio State this past Saturday. I wanted to see him stamp his spot in those games, but the opportunities just weren’t there. Maybe that changes in the College Football Playoff. But while Michigan is 12-0, McCarthy and the offense have largely dodged opposing star power, and the Wolverines haven’t leaned on him much in those few big games.”

McCarthy threw for 2,483 yards with 19 touchdowns and 4 interceptions during the regular season, completing 74.3% of his passes at 9.7 yards per attempt. His next shot to impress comes Saturday night against the Iowa Hawkeyes in the Big Ten Championship game, set for an 8:17 p.m. kickoff from Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis.

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