J.J. McCarthy is ‘Mitch Trubisky with a better coach,’ says Colin Cowherd

Former Michigan quarterback J.J. McCarthy has experienced a meteoric rise in the lead-up to the 2024 NFL Draft process, as the 21-year-old appears poised to be a top-five pick, but not everyone is convinced that he’ll find success.

Colin Cowherd went as far as to say that teams could be making a full-blown mistake by buying too much into the hype surrounding McCarthy, who he compared to a former No. 2 overall selection on Wednesday’s edition of “The Herd.”

“I think he (McCarthy) is Mitch Trubisky with a better college coach,” Cowherd said. “He’s mobile [and] he’s a nice kid, but his ball dies. He misses easy stuff, misses too many layups — and unless his feet are pointed in the right direction, he is set, he’s got time and he can look down his receiver, he’s not that accurate, consistently.

“What I just described — protection, your feet are set, you’ve got everything ready to deliver, you’ve got space — that’s Michigan; that’s not the NFL. At Michigan, you got perfect protection … he played with a lead; he had a run game. That is not the NFL. What are you when stuff implodes, when you have to throw moving left?”

Cowherd also referred to McCarthy as being “not that big” and having a “pretty average” arm.

McCarthy was Michigan’s quarterback for the past two seasons, with the team going a combined 28-1 with him under center and, most notably, winning last season’s College Football Playoff National Championship. Last season, he totaled 2,991 passing yards, 22 passing touchdowns, four interceptions and a 167.4 passer rating, while completing 72.3% of his passes. McCarthy also ran for 202 yards and three touchdowns.

The knock on McCarthy is that he wasn’t the featured part of the Wolverines offense, as they heavily relied on the dynamic running back duo of Blake Corum and Donovan Edwards, while sporting one of the best offensive lines in college football.

On the other side, Trubisky got scattered playing time at North Carolina from 2014-15 before becoming the school’s full-time starter in 2016, when he threw for 3,748 yards and 30 touchdowns, while also rushing for 308 yards and five scores.

Trubisky’s 2016 campaign ended up being enough for the Chicago Bears to trade up from No. 3 in the 2017 NFL Draft to take him at No. 2, making him the first signal-caller off the board that year. He underwhelmed in the 12 starts that he made in his rookie season before throwing for 24 touchdowns and helping the Bears go 12-4 and win the NFC North in 2018.

Trubisky then slumped the ensuing two seasons, with the Bears declining his fifth-year option in 2020 and letting him leave in free agency after the 2020 season. He spent 2021 with the Buffalo Bills, backing up star quarterback Josh Allen. Trubisky then spent the next two seasons with the Pittsburgh Steelers (2022-23), with whom he appeared in a combined 12 games (seven starts). He signed a two-year deal with the Bills this offseason.

“He’s my ‘I don’t quite see it,'” Cowherd added about McCarthy. “Not saying it can’t work, but it would all have to line up perfectly to work to any degree.”

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