Buying the hype of J.J. McCarthy going #2 overall in the NFL Draft? | Inside Coverage
Yahoo Sports’ Jason Fitz and senior NFL reporter Charles Robinson take a ride on the J.J. McCarthy hype train to see if McCarthy going #2 overall to the Washington Commanders is real. Hear the full conversation on “Inside Coverage” - part of the “Zero Blitz” podcast - and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you listen.
Video Transcript
JASON FITZ: What we have is you've got Pelissero coming in, talking about the fact that there's all sorts of traction for JJ McCarthy to go as high as number two to Washington. McCarthy was plus 2500 on BET MGM to be the second pick on Monday. By Tuesday, he was plus 800. That's a massive shift in the lines, telling you that Vegas believes there is momentum for McCarthy to be the second pick. Looking in your crystal ball, you buying JJ to Washington?
CHARLES ROBINSON: I don't. I don't. And only because-- that's not my opinion. I feel like for the most part, when you talk to people in the personnel community, they're not buying it.
JASON FITZ: And in the same week where you got Harbaugh coming out and saying he's the best quarterback in the draft, I just-- I'm trying to figure out what we should be doing with this quarterback, C-Rob-- this quarterback class, C-Rob. Because it's just-- it's confusing to me.
CHARLES ROBINSON: Yeah, I mean, I was on the phone basically all day yesterday trying to talk to different personnel individuals, GMs, scouts. I just wanted to know how realistic is this at this point with JJ McCarthy potentially being at two. There are people-- some people are like, this is just crazy and are rolling their eyes and calling it ridiculous. Others who are like, hey, wait a minute. No, it's not.
In terms of the people who think this could potentially be real and spelled out why, I thought there were some interesting things that they talked about. One GM basically was like, look, you can't discount the fact that he went 27 and 1, the fact that he was on three teams and he started for two that were in the College Football Playoff. Success does matter.
I had another who brought up the age where he was like, he's 21. Some of these other quarterbacks that he's getting measured against, not so much now because he's scooted up to the top of the draft, but still like a Jayden Daniels, he said he's got-- these are guys with double the number of starts that McCarthy has. Or they've got a couple more years on him.
OK, well, what's JJ going to look like when he's 24? OK, yeah, Jayden's at this level. What's JJ going to look like when he's had a couple of years to continue to grow? And they bring up the fact that he put on more weight, that, hey, maybe at 21, physically, he's not even done.
It's potentially real that he has traction at number two. Maybe that has to do with other quarterbacks now who I-- and I think we can get to this in a little bit. I think there's red flags now across the board with these quarterbacks.
So everyone who's sitting here now in late March going, oh, my God, JJ McCarthy's going to be number two. Oh, my God, the Commanders are going to pass on Drake Maye, and they're going to pass on Daniels. And oh, my God, the Patriots are going to do the same thing, They're going to-- oh, what if they take JJ? We're in late March. Relax.
