By 5 GOATs,Thomas Goldkamp
Copyright yardbarker
Former coach and current FOX Sports analyst Urban Meyer joined Colin Cowherd on his show on Thursday and faced a question about former Michigan quarterback JJ McCarthy. McCarthy is off to a rough start to his second year in the NFL, which is essentially his first real year of action.
Amid the questions about whether McCarthy can hack it at the NFL level, Meyer said the expectation should have been for some uneven play. McCarthy simply doesn’t have a ton of experience with an entire team relying on him.
“I never heard him complain. He’s a national champion, so I have a lot of respect for him,” Meyer said on The Herd with Colin Cowherd. “But of course it was going to be bumpy. There’s no doubt that it was going to be, and I think he’s still going to be fine.”
That said, Meyer is in the camp of people wondering whether JJ McCarthy can get it done long-term. Unequivocally.
“I question this: Is he that franchise guy that can go win a bunch of games as the quarterback?” Meyer asked. “That still remains to be seen. I think he’s a hell of a player, but that’s a big task.”
Through two games this NFL season, JJ McCarthy has gone 24-of-41 passing for 301 yards and two touchdowns. But he has thrown three interceptions.
Minnesota scored just six points in a loss to Atlanta this week. It was a far cry from the fourth-quarter rally against Chicago the week before.
Cowherd had pointed out his doubts about JJ McCarthy before the season. And Meyer admitted he could see where he was coming from.
“I agreed with you that he never had to win a game,” Meyer said. “Every game that we covered at Big Noon, and I was a big fan of his, I think he manages the game. I thought any time you have a guy that can get you out of trouble with his legs, which he can… I never heard him complain.”
There was one thing that really stood out to Meyer about JJ McCarthy, though. It was a particular game.
“I was at the game against Penn State where they ran the ball 32 straight times,” Meyer said. “And they didn’t, here’s the thing about that game, they ran the ball 32 straight times yet punted. It wasn’t like they were blowing them off the ball, they punted two or three times. They were just trying to kill the game, so that tells me they don’t have a lot of confidence in throwing the ball right now.”
Can JJ McCarthy instill that confidence in the Minnesota Vikings going forward? Possibly. But it’s a big ask from the first-year contributor, Meyer said.
