Jim Harbaugh just provided the wildest prediction yet on the upcoming NFL Draft.
In an appearance Friday on Fox Sports’ the Herd with Colin Cowherd, the new Los Angeles Chargers coach was asked about his former quarterback at Michigan, J.J. McCarthy. Harbaugh and McCarthy led the Wolverines to the CFP National Championship last month. McCarthy is expected to be drafted somewhere in the mid-to-late first round.
Harbaugh thinks McCarthy will go much, much higher.
“How do do you think he’ll do?” Cowherd asked. “What does he bring to the table that maybe I can’t see as a TV viewer?”
“Arm talent, athleticism, ‘it’ factor, winning with numbing repetition,” Harbaugh said. “Don’t be surprised … if, when he’s the No. 1 quarterback off the board. That’s my prediction right now.”
It’s wonderful Harbaugh wants to stick up for his former player, but that projection is much higher than any draft experts have rated McCarthy. USC’s Caleb Williams, LSU’s Heisman Trophy winner Jayden Daniels, North Carolina’s Drake Maye and Washington quarterback Michael Penix Jr. are typically rated ahead of McCarthy in most projections.
However, McCarthy’s draft status has improved in recent months. ESPN recently released a mock draft showing McCarthy going No. 7 overall to the Las Vegas Raiders. However, he was still projected as the fourth QB taken, behind Williams, Maye and Daniels.
Harbaugh is convinced the more teams see of McCarthy, the more they’ll like him.
“When people get a load of J.J., how he can throw the ball, how he spins it, his athleticism, his intelligence … the competitiveness that he has, and they get around him and they really start digging in and they start talking to him, that’s an early prediction for the 2024 NFL Draft,” Harbaugh said.
Jim Harbaugh on J.J. McCarthy:
"Don't be surprised if and when he's the number one QB off the board. That's my prediction right now." pic.twitter.com/58kGRBEt7W
— Herd w/Colin Cowherd (@TheHerd) February 2, 2024
It’s one thing to praise your former players, and Harbaugh could have done the same thing by saying something like, “McCarthy will one day be seen as the best QB in this class,” or something like that. But he went much further, and many fans are worried that the Chargers put him in the driver’s seat.
Harbaugh is going to do the movie Draft Day IRL and trade up to pick JJ first overall https://t.co/8reqnnmY1c
— Championship Connoisseur (@UMvsEveryone) February 2, 2024
Jim Harbaugh trying to convince an opposing team to waste a top pick on a bad quarterback.
The gamesmanship! https://t.co/YA4giZGrII
— kevin harrish (@Kevinish) February 2, 2024
Jim Harbaugh is not mentally well, and people want to entrust billion-dollar organizations to him. https://t.co/eBueu2kR5H
— Joe (@JoeA_NFL) February 2, 2024
If JJ McCarthy is drafted number one, it’s because the Chargers traded up https://t.co/HwxzF7fsk9
— Walk-On Redshirts (@walkonredshirts) February 2, 2024
Pardon me but I will be very surprised when J.J. goes above Caleb & Drake https://t.co/JQyKN9HDy1
— Easton Freeze (@eastonfreeze) February 2, 2024
