J. J. McCarthy

Jonathan James McCarthy (born January 20, 2003) is an American football quarterback for the Minnesota Vikings of the National Football League (NFL). He was selected tenth overall by the Vikings in the 2024 NFL draft.

McCarthy played college football for the Michigan Wolverines, seeing playing time as a backup true freshman in 2021. As a sophomore in 2022, McCarthy led Michigan to an undefeated regular season, a Big Ten Conference championship and a berth in the 2022–23 College Football Playoff (CFP). In 2023, McCarthy was the Big Ten Quarterback of the Year, leading the Wolverines to a perfect 15–0 record and a national championship as a junior, the program's first since 1997. In his three years at Michigan, the Wolverines won three Big Ten titles and made three CFP semifinal appearances. McCarthy finished his college career with a 27–1 record (.964) as a starting quarterback, the highest winning percentage in NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) history.

McCarthy played high school football at Nazareth Academy before transferring to IMG Academy as a senior, leading them to a national championship in 2020.

Early life and high school
McCarthy was born on January 20, 2003, in La Grange Park, Illinois. He attended Nazareth Academy for high school until transferring to IMG Academy in Bradenton, Florida, as a senior in 2020 after the COVID-19 pandemic led to the cancellation of Nazareth's football season. In two seasons as the starting quarterback at Nazareth, he led his team to a 26–2 record with consecutive appearances in the IHSA Class 7A state championship game, winning the state title as a sophomore in 2018. In his lone season at IMG, he led his team to an 8–0 record and a consensus high school football national championship.

McCarthy was a five-star recruit in the 247Sports composite rankings, which uses the ratings of each major recruiting website. At age 16, McCarthy said Ryan Day "lied to my face" by telling him in March that Ohio State would not take a quarterback in the 2021 recruiting class until the end of the summer, but then accepted a commitment from Kyle McCord in April. Despite growing up an Ohio State fan, McCarthy committed to rival Michigan the next month. Speaking about his new hatred of Ohio State, he said, "I used to love them. Now I want to kill them."

McCarthy played hockey growing up and said that was actually his first love, not football. Around his freshman year of high school, he made the decision to give up hockey in order to focus on football. McCarthy called it "one of the hardest decisions I ever had to make."

In eighth grade, he received a scholarship offer to play football at Iowa State from head coach Matt Campbell.

2021 season


In May 2019, McCarthy committed to play college football at the University of Michigan and enrolled in 2021. He appeared in 11 games for the Wolverines during the 2021 season, primarily as a rotational backup behind Cade McNamara. He completed 34 of 59 passes for 516 yards, with five passing touchdowns and two interceptions, also rushing for 124 yards and two touchdowns.

On September 4, 2021, he made his debut against Western Michigan, completing four of six passes for 80 yards, including his first collegiate touchdown pass, a 69-yard reception by Daylen Baldwin. Against Wisconsin, McCarthy scored his first collegiate rushing touchdown to go up 20-10 in the middle of the third quarter, also connecting with Baldwin late in the game for a 56-yard touchdown in a 38-17 victory. McCarthy again scored two touchdowns versus Maryland in week 11.

In the final game of the regular season against Ohio State, McCarthy helped Michigan defeat the Buckeyes to advance to the 2021 Big Ten Championship. McCarthy entered the game midway through the third quarter in a pivotal drive, and completed a 31-yard pass to Roman Wilson. Two plays later he had a key six yard run to the 1 yard line, and Hassan Haskins bookended it with a touchdown run for a 28-13 Michigan lead. McCarthy went on to beat the Buckeyes 42-27, and won a Big ten title the next week versus Iowa, Michigan’s first conference title since 2004.

In the Orange Bowl (CFP semifinal), against the eventual national champion Georgia Bulldogs, McCarthy replaced Cade McNamara in the second half after McNamara fumbled, having already thrown two interceptions and not scoring a touchdown with the offense. McCarthy provided an immediate spark, throwing a touchdown and accounting for 137 yards after taking over for the final 16 minutes of game time (fourth quarter plus one minute). This game started a quarterback competition leading into the next season, with many across college football and inside the program believing given both their performances in the Orange Bowl, and McCarthy's pedigree, that J. J. would be the starting quarterback in 2022.

2022 season
Prior to the 2022 season, McCarthy competed with Cade McNamara for the role as Michigan’s starting quarterback. Before the opening game, Michigan head coach Jim Harbaugh announced that the competition was close and would continue at least for the first two games, with McNamara starting in the first week against Colorado State and McCarthy starting in the second week against Hawaii.

McCarthy started and played most of the first half against Hawaii, completing 11 of 12 passes for 229 yards and three touchdowns while leading the Wolverines to a 42–0 halftime lead. In his postgame press conference, Harbaugh announced that McCarthy would start against UConn in week 3 and added, "He's the starter moving forward on merit."

McCarthy continued as Michigan's starting quarterback, completing 15 of 18 passes against UConn for 214 yards, 18 of 26 passes against Maryland for 220 yards, and 18 of 24 passes against Iowa for 155 yards. Against Indiana on October 8, he completed 28 of 36 passes for 304 yards, three touchdowns, and one interception (on a tipped ball in the end zone). To start November, McCarthy again had a three touchdown performance against Nebraska and Rutgers in consecutive weeks, two passing and one rushing touchdown in each contest.

McCarthy helped lead the Wolverines into an undefeated matchup with the Buckeyes on November 26. He passed for 263 yards and three touchdowns, including 75 and 69 yard scores by Cornelius Johnson and a 45 yard grab by Colston Loveland. He also scored a rushing touchdown in the 45–23 victory over Ohio State.

In the 2022 Big Ten Championship, McCarthy threw for 161 yards and three touchdowns to three different receivers, Ronnie Bell, Luke Schoonmaker and Colston Loveland, leading the Wolverines to a 43-22 victory versus Purdue, and Michigan’s second straight Big Ten title.

In the Fiesta Bowl, he completed 20 of 34 passes for a career-high 343 yards with two touchdowns and two interceptions, both returned for touchdowns, in the 51–45 loss to TCU in the College Football Playoff (CFP) semifinals. He also had 52 yards rushing and a score.

For the 2022 season, he completed 208 of 322 passes for 2,719 yards, 22 touchdowns, five interceptions, a 155.0 quarterback rating, as well as rushed for 306 yards and five touchdowns.

2023 season
On September 2, 2023, in the season opener against East Carolina, McCarthy recorded his best career passing game at home, throwing for 280 yards and three touchdowns. His 86.7% completion percentage (26-for-30) then ranked second-highest in program history, behind Elvis Grbac's 90.9% (20-for-22) against Notre Dame on September 14, 1991. The next week versus UNLV, McCarthy topped his previous percentage, completing 22 of 25 passes (88%) for 278 yards and two touchdowns.

On September 30, McCarthy completed 12 of 16 passes for 156 yards and two touchdowns against Nebraska, tying Todd Collins for ninth-most in program history with 37 career passing touchdowns. He also rushed for a touchdown. On October 7, he had a passing touchdown and his first career game with two rushing scores in the victory over Minnesota. The following two weeks, McCarthy threw for 222 yards and three touchdowns versus Indiana, as well as 287 yards and a career best four passing touchdowns against the rival Michigan State Spartans on the road. In three games in October, McCarthy accounted for ten touchdowns. Against Purdue on November 4, he completed 24 of 37 throws for 335 yards, passing Tom Brady for ninth on the program's all-time passing yards list.

On November 25, in a third consecutive victory against Ohio State, McCarthy completed 16 of 20 passes for 148 yards and a touchdown to Roman Wilson, moving ahead of Shea Patterson for seventh on the program's all-time passing yards list. In the win against Iowa in the 2023 Big Ten Championship, McCarthy became the fastest quarterback to reach 25 career wins in the 144-year history of Michigan football (26 starts).

On January 1, 2024, in a 27–20 overtime win against Alabama in the Rose Bowl, he completed 17 of 27 passes for 221 yards and three touchdowns to three different receivers, Roman Wilson, Blake Corum and Tyler Morris. McCarthy was named Rose Bowl Offensive Player of the Game. After the Rose Bowl, Harbaugh said that McCarthy is the greatest quarterback in Michigan football history. Tom Brady agreed with Harbaugh's statement in an Instagram comment.

On January 8, 2024, against Washington in the College Football Playoff National Championship, he completed 10 of 18 passes for 140 yards in a 34–13 win, leading Michigan to an undefeated 15–0 record and its first national championship title since 1997.

McCarthy finished his career at Michigan with a 27–1 record (.964) as the starting quarterback, the best winning percentage in NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) history (1978–present), the third-best winning percentage in major college football history, and the best by any college quarterback since 1971. In each of his three years at Michigan, the Wolverines beat Ohio State, won the Big Ten title, and advanced to the CFP semifinal.

Professional career
McCarthy was selected by the Minnesota Vikings tenth overall in the 2024 NFL draft. He was one of six quarterbacks taken in the first round, tying the 1983 draft for the most in NFL history.

Personal life
McCarthy is a practitioner of meditation, which he began doing in high school. McCarthy is engaged to high school sweetheart, Katya Kuropas.