INDIANAPOLIS — Sherrone Moore has made it to the NFL Scouting Combine, and he’s already defending his former quarterback.
The first-year Michigan coach and former offensive coordinator joined Rich Eisen and Daniel Jeremiah in the Lucas Oil Stadium booth during NFL Network’s event coverage on Friday, encouraging detractors of quarterback J.J. McCarthy to “put on the film.”
You just see a winner,” Moore, the man tasked with taking over for Jim Harbaugh, said on the broadcast. “A guy that, if asked to hand the ball off, he will. If he’s asked to throw the ball and be accurate, throw it on time and scramble out of a play, he can. He can make any type of throw.”
All week, Michigan’s event-record 18 players at the combine have fielded questions about McCarthy and his ability. While the quarterback finished his college career 27-1 as a starter, winning three Big Ten titles and leading the Wolverines to a national championship in 2023, critics say they haven’t seen him do enough through the air.
Michigan ran the football at nearly a 60-percent last season, limiting McCarthy’s opportunities to throw it. As a result, his impressive stat line — a 72-percent completion rate, 2,991 passing yards, 22 TD, 4 INT — paled in comparison to some of the other top quarterbacks in this year’s draft.
His teammates came to his defense, too. Speaking Friday at the combine, running back Blake Corum said “there’s no question” McCarthy is one of the top quarterbacks in this year’s draft.
“In my opinion, the top,” Corum said. “That might be biased, that might not be — but I’m telling you the truth. He’s a field general. He’s going to manage the game really well. He’s athletic, he can run out of the pocket, he can throw the deep ball, check down, medium-sized passes.
“You name it, J.J. can do it.”
It was Corum who was captured on video Thursday afternoon catching passes from McCarthy on a second-floor hallway inside the Indiana Convention Center. McCarthy acknowledged the video a day later, saying it’s all part of his love for football.
That, Moore and the outgoing Michigan players believe, helps separate McCarthy from the rest of the pack.
“He’s going to find a way to get better,” Moore said. “He’s the ultimate team guy. I remember as a freshman, him coming into the huddle and Andrew Stueber — a senior o-lineman — told me, ‘Man, I’d run through a wall for that guy.’ He’s just a special type of kid.
Just last week, Jeremiah — in a conference call with reporters — characterized McCarthy as a game manager, calling the Michigan quarterback “an acquired taste” around the league.
“He can make any type of throw,” Moore said. “Anything you want, J.J. can do. He can run the football if he wanted to.”
Moore continued, calling McCarthy — a projected first-round pick — “extremely smart, extremely intelligent” and praised his versatility in the ground-and-pound Michigan offense.
“He’s taken snaps under center, he’s called plays from a wristband,” Moore said. “He’s looked to the sideline. He’s done everything you wanted. He has that ‘it-factor’ that you want in a quarterback. He has that.”
You’ve likely heard that phrase before — ‘it factor’ — from former Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh, who effusively praised the 6-foot-3, 202-pound McCarthy all season long in Ann Arbor. At one point, Harbaugh called McCarthy — named the Big Ten’s quarterback of the year — the best quarterback to ever play at Michigan.
