Skip to main content

Chargers News: Could A Former Jim Harbaugh Player's Value Impact LA's Draft Options?

It's going to be an interesting April.

Just how much rival clubs value star quarterback J.J. McCarthy, the best player on current Los Angeles Chargers head coach Jim Harbaugh's former club, the CFP-winning University of Michigan Wolverines, may adversely affect the ability of Bolts general manager Joe Hortiz to move off the team's top pick in the impending NFL draft.

In a fresh installment of the Bleav In Chargers podcast, LA play-by-play commentator Matt "Money" Smith explained to co-host (and legendary ex-Bolts fullback) Lorenzo Neal how McCarthy's relative value for other teams could cause problems for Chargers brass.

"I mean, everybody's got an agenda," Smith said. "So setting that as a pretext, I can't count how many times we've come out of a combine and, 'Oh, Malik Willis, now he might go in the first or Will Levis. Oh, he is top five pick now.' These things happen and we typically fall for them because we believe in quarterback [as] a premium position."

"But I do believe this year that the head coach of the Chargers was correct even though he was laughed at when he said it. And he embellished a little bit by saying J.J. McCarthy is the number one quarterback in the draft, but J.J. McCarthy is going to go in the first round," Smith added. "He's going to go high. That's that's probably my biggest takeaway because I think that directly affects the number five pick [in the] top ten. Is he a top ten pick?"