Fox Sports college football analyst Joel Klatt has been around football for quite awhile and is one of the better voices in college football. He calls the Big Noon Kickoff game alongside Gus Johnson and Michigan is a team that both of them get to see quite a bit. Klatt has been impressed with quarterback J.J. McCarthy and what he did this past year for the Wolverines.

Recently, Klatt released his first NFL mock draft of the season. Klatt had McCarthy slipping a little in the draft, in fact, there were four quarterbacks that Klatt put ahead of McCarthy. He had Oregon QB Bo Nix heading to the Denver Broncos at No. 12 — which is a popular pick for McCarthy according to mock drafts.

But Klatt didn’t have McCarthy falling much further. He believes McCarthy would be a perfect fit with the Seattle Seahawks at No. 16 overall. With new head coach Mike Macdonald at the helm, Klatt says nobody knows McCarthy better in this NFL draft than Macdonald — other than Jim Harbaugh. Macdonald wants to build a good defensive team in Seattle and if he can land a QB that can make plays then the Seahawks will be a tough out.

“Offensively, you want to be able to ground and pound and then have a quarterback who can create in order to play at the top end with this philosophy,” said Klatt. “You have to have a quarterback that can create. That’s why Baltimore is having great success with Lamar Jackson. That’s why Michigan won the national championship. The Wolverines had a quarterback who could complete a pass on fourth down against Alabama or go get a first down in several other big games.”

“Nobody in this draft, outside of Jim Harbaugh, is going to know McCarthy as well as Mike Macdonald, who was the coordinator at Michigan when McCarthy was a freshman. McCarthy wasn’t the starter yet, but when I called many of their games that season, everyone knew he was the future of the program.”

“Now, you look at McCarthy’s record at Michigan and the way he’s played over the last two years, his play will jump off the tape even though he didn’t throw the ball the way the other top quarterback prospects did. He played a great complementary style to the philosophy that Michigan wanted to run. I think that’s going to be really attractive to Macdonald.” 

“What’s interesting about this is that former Washington offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb is now the offensive coordinator in Seattle. Many will think that the Seahawks will take Michael Penix Jr. due to his natural connection, but it’s going to be Macdonald’s call. He’s not, necessarily, going to want to play the way Washington did and throw the ball all over the lot. Macdonald’s going to be trying to put the philosophy and the organizational structure in place, just like Michigan and Baltimore.”

“What quarterback would be better to do that than the guy who just led Michigan to a 15-0 record and a national championship? He’s more NFL-ready than you think.”