I must admit, I was pretty happy when the Minnesota Vikings selected former Michigan quarterback JJ McCarthy in the first round of the 2024 NFL Draft. McCarthy reminded me so much of failed Bears 2017 first-rounder Mitch Trubisky as a draft prospect. While there's no telling whether McCarthy will have a similarly bad NFL career, the fact I wasn't very high on him and he's in the NFC North makes me feel pretty good about the Chicago Bears' chances of eventually claiming the division's Iron Throne.
McCarthy was the field general for Michigan's National Championship, but he wasn't the reason why they won. Instead, former coach Jim Harbaugh relied on an old-school three-yards-and-a-cloud-of-dust approach. It's left many NFL draft analysts to wonder just how good of a passer McCarthy is, and while throwing a football is very different than tossing a baseball, McCarthy's recent first pitch at a Minnesota Twins game certainly had Vikings fans cringing.
Check it out:
#Vikings rookie QB JJ McCarthy threw out the first pitch at the Twins game. It didn’t go as he planned.
— Ari Meirov (@MySportsUpdate) June 19, 2024
(🎥 @DexsTweets)
pic.twitter.com/sBEH43P6Np
Yes, that sound you hear is Bears fans laughing from coast to coast.
Maybe I'm being a bit harsh. I get it; this doesn't mean anything about JJ McCarthy, the quarterback. But for Bears fans who've had to tolerate being the butt of every quarterback joke since... forever, it's nice to see a different NFC North team take some jabs.