Jim Harbaugh would never be one to rip one of his former esteemed players in public, let alone someone he won a college football national championship with.
With Harbaugh now coaching the Los Angeles Chargers while ex-Michigan quarterback J.J. McCarthy prepares for the 2024 NFL Draft, of course Harbaugh was going to talk up his former starting quarterback. You’d have been silly to assume otherwise about a player now weirdly in the rumored discussion for the No. 2 overall pick with the Washington Commanders.
But it seems some NFL draft evaluators reportedly think Harbaugh is taking his love for McCarthy a little too far. Via Yahoo Sports’ Charles Robinson:
“Interestingly, quite a few evaluators are pointing at [J.J.] McCarthy’s former coach at Michigan, Jim Harbaugh, who is now with the Los Angeles Chargers and sitting with the fifth overall pick. Nearly every evaluator I spoke to about McCarthy brought up the considerable praise that Harbaugh has been lavishing on his former player, which included calling him the best quarterback in this draft. To say that statement has elicited some eye-rolls would be a vast underestimation of how it was received in many personnel departments.
One longtime evaluator chuckled when I asked about McCarthy’s projection at No. 2 overall and shot back: ‘Harbaugh didn’t say he was the No. 2 quarterback. He said he was the No. 1 quarterback.’ Another longtime evaluator noted, ‘Jim [Harbaugh] needs everything but a quarterback. So every quarterback that gets taken befo