Colin Cowherd has been warming up to Michigan quarterback J.J. McCarthy in ways that a lot of other NFL analysts have been reluctant to.
On Friday’s edition of The Herd, Cowherd mused on what the ceiling and pro comparisons for the national championship-winning quarterback might be. The answer that he settled on was another former Big Ten quarterback: Kirk Cousins.
Cowherd pointed out that they have a lot of similarities in terms of their college stats and believes that in the right situation, McCarthy would be able to thrive quickly. He believes that McCarthy would particularly benefit from getting a head coach who specializes in developing quarterbacks.
Cowherd concluded that even if McCarthy simply becomes a game-manager, it doesn’t mean he won’t have tons of NFL success. He pointed out that a game-manager is not a quarterback who is inherently not athletic.
McCarthy has been a polarizing prospect for a while. Analysts are split between grading him as a first-round or even a top-10 pick, or as a Day 2 pick who needs a ton of development.
A positive comparison to Kirk Cousins would certainly help McCarthy’s draft stock if that’s what other NFL teams see in him.
Where you go certainly does matter for certain quarterbacks. Nearly all of the quarterbacks drafted in the first round of the 2021 and 2022 NFL Drafts that are no longer with the team that drafted them go into that situation with defensive-minded or otherwise completely incompetent coaches.
Will McCarthy be able to rise above his coaching?