The quarterback of the future has arrived
It’s been a decade since the Minnesota Vikings took a swing at a quarterback of the future in the NFL Draft, but now the team has selected someone that they hope will be the face of the franchise for a long time to come.
With the 11th pick in the 2024 NFL Draft, the Minnesota Vikings have selected J.J. McCarthy, the quarterback from the University of Michigan.
McCarthy has risen up draft boards pretty rapidly over the past couple of months, which likely comes as a surprise to some. However, McCarthy has all of the talent and the athletic ability to be the long-term answer at quarterback for the Vikings that they haven’t had in a very long time. He wasn’t asked to do as much as some quarterbacks during his time with the Wolverines because of the style of offense Jim Harbaugh wants to play (and we’ll see from him in the NFL in Los Angeles), but that certainly doesn’t mean he doesn’t have the ability to do everything that NFL quarterbacks are asked to do. He’s the youngest of the major quarterback prospects in this year’s class and has just a high a ceiling as any of the others.
Dane Brugler of The Athletic has McCarthy as the #4 quarterback in this year’s draft class and the #21 prospect overall on his Big Board. Here’s what Brugler had to say about McCarthy.
A two-year starter at Michigan, McCarthy was the point guard of former head coach Jim Harbaugh’s pro-style spread offense that relied on a power-run attack and shifts/motions to create favorable matchups in the passing game. After compiling a 36-2 record in high school with a state title, he led the Wolverines to a 27-1 record as a starter (school-record .964 winning percentage), including the 2023 national championship. Though McCarthy needs to add more bulk to his frame, he is a good-sized athlete who can operate from the pocket with balance, negotiate pressure and create plays with his mobility when needed. He is a loose passer, quick to process what the defense gives him and delivers with velocity and accuracy from various platforms (school -record 67.6 percent career completion percentage). However, his decision-making is still developing, and he must prove he can get further into his progressions. NFL teams describe him as a “winner” and love the way he is wired (Harbaugh calls him the “Ice Man” for the way he stays cool under pressure). Overall, McCarthy’s evaluation feels incomplete, which creates even more projection than normal, but his passing skills, pocket athleticism and mental makeup are all ascending and create optimism for his NFL future. Although bumps along the way should be expected, he has the package of tools to become an NFL starter early in his career.
We know that “wins” aren’t a quarterback stat, but McCarthy certainly did a lot of that over the past few years in Ann Arbor and should provide that sort of championship mentality to Minnesota. Whether or not he’ll start right away remains to be seen, but he’ll almost certainly be leading this franchise sooner rather than later.
Welcome to Minnesota, J.J. McCarthy!
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