NFL Execs: Harbaugh is lavishing false praise on JJ to boost LA draft pick
Granted, a lot of this just seems to be written in the spirit of churning out meaningless NFL draft content. But much is being made of a Yahoo story by Charles Robinson from the other day:
NFL Draft is poker season, and Michigan’s J.J. McCarthy might simply be its latest QB bluff
Robinson begins by talking about how often QBs get pumped up pre-draft just to slip in the actual draft (e.g., Will Levis last year). But the part that has everyone rushing to their keyboards, social media, and AI generators is this:
So where is the poker being played here? Interestingly, quite a few evaluators are pointing at McCarthy’s former coach at Michigan, Jim Harbaugh, who is now with the Los Angeles Chargers and sitting with the fifth overall pick. Nearly every evaluator I spoke to about McCarthy brought up the considerable praise that Harbaugh has been lavishing on his former player, which included calling him the best quarterback in this draft. To say that statement has elicited some eye-rolls would be a vast underestimation of how it was received in many personnel departments. ...
Another longtime evaluator noted, “Jim needs everything but a quarterback. So every quarterback that gets taken before [the fifth pick] is a win for him.”
While nobody suggested that Harbaugh is the source of the supposed Commanders interest at No. 2 overall, some evaluators came close.
“There definitely could be a little bit of an ulterior motive to get someone pushed to him, for sure. That would be a Harbaugh type move,” one evaluator said. “There’s a plan there, I would say. Because they’re sitting there like, all right, if top four are QBs, we get our pick of whatever the hell we want. They’re probably in the best position of any team up there, because now the first four probably are going to be quarterbacks.”
“He’s definitely been pumping [McCarthy] a lot,” another evaluator said of Harbaugh. “It seems like he’s doing it every time he sits down with anyone. Which I’m sure that’s what most coaches would say about their guy who wins a national championship and has that [27-1] record as a starter. But it’s definitely convenient that McCarthy going in those top four picks is really a best-case scenario for the Chargers, too. I do think there’s something to that, too.”
Jim compared JJ to Mahomes and Josh Allen at the Big Ten media days last year and praised him as the best to ever do it at Michigan throughout the season. What amazing foresight to know that he'd be the HC of the Chargers with the 5th pick and that JJ would enter the draft. I'll admit, this ruse all year long where Harbaugh praised JJ fooled me; I thought it was about JJ and Michigan, not about his nefarious plan to get the Pats to take a QB and to trick the Cardinals into trading their pick (I guess so that LA can draft Marvin Harrison).
I'm fairly certain Harbaugh guaranteed victory over OSU in 1986 with an eye towards the 2024 NFL Draft.
Washington insiders are saying they are serious about JJ
Michigan fans are generally not going to be able to evaluate JJ clearly as his 27-1 record, a national title, and being part of three Big Ten championship teams put him into legend status. He is going to be adored forever by Michigan fans.
But looking at his performance from a football evaluation standpoint I found his performances to be good, but not elite. He ran the offense as called and did it well.
(But then so did Cade. Cade went 12-2 with a win over OSU and Big Ten championship. If he is able to finish out the game vs MSU they win it. Michigan was up with the ball at midfield with five minutes left when true freshman JJ had to come in while Cade was out with his injury.)
He essentially was a mobile Jared Goff for Michigan. Generally accurate on short and medium throws, but would have some bad misses and wasn’t a great deep ball passer. He is still a raw player.
He enters the NFL with potential, but what that potential is no one really knows as his onfield performances were largely solid to good on a team with a great running game and dominant defense. Can he carry a team with his arm? Can he consistently make the correct reads and throws?
(I had an interesting exchange with Kurt Warner on Twitter. He liked UM’s passing concepts and felt they had enough answers to what defenses presented. That made me feel better about Campbell.)
JJ looks closer to being Griese at the next level rather than a Brady. JJ rarely showed the genius for carrying a team to a win as TB10 did vs PSU, OSU, and Bama.(People really sleep on TB10’s senior year because he had to split it with Henson) JJ did have that tying drive vs Bama in the Rose and that matters. But when UM absolutely needed it was guys like Corum, Sainristril, and Wilson who more often than not made the biggest plays.
JJ was a game manager in college. You can win with game managers in the NFL( Brock Purdy and Jared Goff). But are they worth a top five or ten pick? That is the question NFL GMs are trying to answer.
Sal, he played what was called. 32 straight run plays even. But executed when it counted. But you aren't wrong. Put him on a free for all offense and it's an unknown. An equal question is how these supposed top 5 QBs would perform in our structured offense.
Cade went 12-2 with a win over OSU and Big Ten championship. If he is able to finish out the game vs MSU they win it.
He did finish the game. He quarterbacked our last two possessions, but we failed to score, turning it over on downs and throwing an interception.
JJ has a stronger arm than Griese, and probably Brady. Griese couldn't throw hard which made him subject to interceptions. Brady was accurate, but people say not as accurate as Aaron Rodgers. What separated Brady was extreme football intelligence, incredible football memory enabling him to tell which plays worked in past years and might work again, great emotional intelligence to lead his team, and the ability to see and analyze the whole field quickly so he rarely overlooked open receivers, among other things. He was so good that his play convinced Notre Dame that his first pro offensive coordinator, Charlie Weiss, was a good football coach. Think about that. There is no way scouts can tell now if JJ or anyone else has enough of these qualities or, at 21, will develop them. This is why when a quarterback is drafted is meaningless, and amateurs predicting who will be successful is a joke. I think it's funny that the experts who make a living from this had to watch Mr. Irrelevant in the Super Bowl.
Of course it'll come across as that, until anyone intelligent realizes that JJ is 27-1 and almost 28-0. So the benefit of doubt should go that way.
Harbaugh has been hyping him up since his sophomore year. If this was all for draft posturing, then JH really plays the long game.
Jim playing 5-dimensional chess, as usual.
I kinda get people having reservations about JJ because of the drop in his level of play in the 2nd half of the season...
But I've become pretty convinced that a lot of these draft expert talking heads don't watch film, because JJ was outstanding in the first half of the season, yet they never talk about it.
FFS, even just look at his stats. Spoiler: he was pretty good during that half of a season he was averaging like a 96 QBR.
Fine, maybe Harbaugh is acting on an ulterior motive. But that isn't his only motive - I don't think there's any question that Harbaugh thinks JJ is a really good quarterback with lots of NFL potential.
As others have already pointed out here, there are plenty of people in or behind the media that have their own ulterior motives working in the opposite direction. If they were actually doing work AND capable of making an unbiased assessment, they would have to write about more JJ's physical attributes and skills he has demonstrated with the ball in his hands. And they wouldn't be so quick to compare JJ to anyone else solely on the merits of those two things. How many college quarterbacks have been a key contributor to a 3-year turnaround like JJ has, won a national championship, and done it without the benefit of an endless supply of high 4 and 5-star talent beside him?
Like a lot of things, two things can be equally true. He loves the player and truly believes he's the best QB in the draft. He fits Harbaugh's offensive philosophy and everything he wants in a QB. And, hyping him definitely helps the Chargers in the draft. It definitely helps them if QBs go 1-4 or someone wants to jump up and draft him at 5.
My guess is that the OL he likes the best is Fuaga out of Oregon St. He's a Harbaugh type mauler and they don't really need a LT. They also need a WR. I could see them dropping back a bit, picking up picks, drafting a WR or Fuaga, and then moving back up in the 1st round to get one of the player they don't get with their first pick. This draft is OL and WR rich and if they could get 2 picks in the first round, they could get elite players at both positions.
Playing the long con. He probably even informed on himself to get himself suspended. Wheels within wheels....
Harbaugh praising the QB that won Big Ten Titles, out dueled CJ Stroud to win, won a National Championship and out dueled Penix, it’s not a stretch.
The common projections of Williams, Maye/Daniels, then McCarthey, Penix is the most likely. But what is often missed is the team and organization they go to If I’m JJ, there are several I don’t want to go to.
I still believe the Bengals ruined a few QB careers in the 90’s and think they held Carson Palmer to mediocre never investing in free agents or improving things for the team/players. The Browns, and many other teams, just I’d rather not go. Yeah it got better for the Bengals as the organization got better when Mike Brown allowed others to run day to day. But many teams the ownership just doesn’t get it done.
BS Harbaugh hate. Even if Harbaugh was staying at Michigan he would say JJ is the best. Kelly would say Daniels is the best. Lincoln would say Caleb is the best. It's what coaches do for their players.
Levis and Willis hype was created by the same pundits who've dismissed JJ as an NFL prospect because he didn't get enough hero-ball opportunities in meaningless football games.
As much as I love JJ and JH for who they are and what they accomplished, I don't think any front office is buying into Jim's hype. Minn gets him at #11, which would be great and still a huge payday.
I don't think anyone trades up to #5 for a QB.
Only thing I'll say is that no QB in the draft is ready to start. There rarely ever are any QBs ready to start as rookies.
Scouts are all looking at which QBs have the best chance of growing into a great NFL QB. It's not so important who looks the best or is the best right now.
I am sure it has nothing to do with JJ's actual play and that he dominated every team as a starter within the game plan.
But Harbaugh gets reads and thats what the media loves.