 This is from draft analyst Tony Pauline in his latest mock draft. Now a mock draft is not a report but when he writes up why he thinks the Patriots are taking J.J. McCarthy number three he says I personally am not big on McCarthy being a top ten selection but McCarthy to New England was the buzz on the pro-day circuit. DeFacto general manager Elliott Wolfe is pushing hard for McCarthy and he believes he has as much upside as any quarterback in this draft so that does feel like a report if Elliott Wolfe is in fact pushing for J.J. McCarthy Mike what are your feelings on that okay all right so so two thoughts the obvious thought is the same one everybody's having WTF what's going on Elliott Wolfe what are you doing J.J. McCarthy did you watch his games in college he was a good college good solid college quarterback but nothing special about him and let's give him a 10 percent 15 percent upgrade let's say Jim Harbaugh was holding him back in college and Harbaugh has never been accused of holding anybody back he makes you better so let's this state let's say just for some strange reason Harbaugh was holding him back and he's going to be better as a pro I still don't see J.J. McCarthy as a top five quarterback and I really struggle to see him as a top 10 guy but then my other thought Felger is that Elliott Wolfe is dumb like a fox that he has really mastered this chess checkers game he's got everybody thinking he's got them off the scent he really makes people believe he wants J.J. McCarthy and he doesn't he really wants either Drake May or Jayden Daniels and he didn't want anybody to know it so he's signaling J.J. McCarthy that's right Elliott you're brilliant you're just wishing that you're willing brilliant you're willing that to be the case again I don't feel like the Patriots are in chess checkers mode I've been sniffing this or feeling this for a little bit yeah you said it a while ago but just but nothing from the outside you know when Zolack a couple weeks ago it's just all of a sudden you know is over head over heels for J.J. McCarthy kind of out of nowhere he even apologizes to Michigan people I apologize for not giving this guy more respect and then you know again all they've talked about this all off season is toughness and leadership a toughness and leadership a toughness and leadership and then dried mail last week really sort of unprompted you'll hear the sound coming up talks about Drake May's floor I'm like I just start to add it up and add it up and add it up and then Gasper last week kind of out of nowhere is scolding the Patriots for being risk adverse and being too concerned about someone's floor versus their ceiling and I just add it all up and people who do talk to people you know I sort of read their commentary and say what's up here now I does it offend me no because I don't buy the hype like I don't think it's an absolute certainty that Drake May right or Jayden Daniels is better than J.J. McCarthy I so I just I don't personally see it with McCarthy but what the hell do I know what I do know is that the pre-draft experts are going to be wrong so it's somewhere so why not here I'm just trying to think now defensively it happens all the time defensively a guy is not highly regarded in college and turns into a star in the pros I mean like Aaron Donald just just retired he went you know he was he went like 13th in a draft you know good draft position for the for the Rams but nobody knew he'd become one of the greatest defensive players in the history of football but offensively I'm just trying to think and I know you know Brady's sixth round I'm just saying a guy who is not like Tom Brady was a good player in college by the way Tom Brady was better in college than J.J. McCarthy was in college as a passer yeah I mean Tom Brady was the reason Michigan won game he was 25 as a start he was 25 Patrick and a captain Patrick Mahomes won 11th you know I mean yeah 10th yeah yeah okay 10th sorry so but but that's still yeah I guess Aaron Rodgers went 20 seconds but okay but but think about this Aaron Rodgers he was sitting around the green room because they thought he could have gone first as was Alex Smith and Aaron Rodgers right he had a great college career Patrick Mahomes it did like do for 5000 yards 5000 plus yards a senior year I'm just saying I've never seen a guy who was just not much in college just kind of jump up to super stardom and the pros I guess it could happen offensively I just can't think of any examples okay even Joe Montana Joe Montana third round pick was still really good and Notre Dame won a bunch of games he was won games dramatically in college just like he did in the pros hey hey maybe this is the first time for everything I Mike I just be stunned if this guy turns out to be worthy of a top five pick largely because you and others watch him at Michigan and you see him in his quote unquote big games and there's just not much there at Penn State he throws for 60 yards against your Iowa State Buckeyes which they won going away right 150 yards not going away well winning all right anyway calm down versus Iowa again under 150 the national semi-final game he did throw three touchdowns that was a good game for him absolutely but he didn't have to do much in the national title game so we bring on Andrew Callahan of the Boston Herald I know you're big on Drake May would you be offended by JJ McCarthy I would be so offended no I would be disappointed you know this is not a player that anyone is describing as a top five player in this draft not a top 10 player and rarely even a top three quarterbacks so the fact that we're just skipping here Drake May and Jane Daniels let alone on April Fool's Day tells me we've gotten bored and I understood this started with Tony Pauline who does a lot of research in the draft his history is a bit spotty with this stuff it just does not pass the smell test and JJ McCarthy does not pass the eye test all right let me ask you this though let's say Elliott Wolfe is pushing for anybody what JJ McCarthy Drake May Jane Daniels it doesn't that say something that Wolfe who is about to conduct his first draft as the guy he's got experience but the first guy in charge the first draft he's in charge when he says I'm going to push for it does that tell you about his lack of self-awareness or does that tell you about his position now with the Patriots where he has he feels the confidence to do that I don't know what it tells me because Michael who is he pushing like if this is his first draft where he's in charge is he looking in the mirror and trying to convince himself like he gets to make the call and we know he wants to be collaborative right maybe he's trying to convince drive Mayo or TC McCartney their new quarterbacks coach or Robert Kraft yeah Robert said like he'll have his input and he'll back off the thing is for me I think if you take JJ McCarthy he is the quote unquote safer prospect right we're talking about floor and this would be indicative to me of a guy who just wants to keep his job right I took the guy who won the most he's accurate you know he's athletic enough he doesn't wow you but he doesn't occur the risk of Drake may bottoming out having this lower tier kind of outcome for him where JJ McCarthy you plug and play you know what he is and that to me would be a bad decision you don't want to be scared going into the draft you're pursuing excellence you have a third pick find a difference maker at number three okay I don't like your depiction of them saying well well we must be bored like just because someone like someone you don't they're they're making it up or it's a narrative or we must be bored well think about it why is JJ McCarthy suddenly in play at number three I don't know but listen listen hold on just let me introduce Greg Bidad talked to six NFL executives he wrote this on Sunday he talked to six NFL executives about the third pick about the top three quarterbacks all six guys said Williams Jaden Daniels one two that's pretty clear then when it got to three you're getting talked to six guys two of them said Drake may two of them said JJ McCarthy two of them said they'd trade down so you don't think opinions are mixed across the league you think the opinion across the league is consensus Drake may over Drake is consensus Drake may over JJ McCarthy and anyone else who says otherwise is just making it up that's not what I said I never said there was a consensus there's certainly a majority whether do you want to go within the league whether you want to go on the drafts the media side of things like at no point even going back to a year ago right we heard Caleb Williams and Drake may that JJ McCarthy ended the conversation as a franchise quarterback don't you know and we all know that the media conversation is different than the internal league conversation the internal league conversations and internal boards are way different than your mock draft and Mel Kipers mock draft and we all know this right so I don't think so though because the gap has been closing right like Todd McShea was offered a job to work for the Jets in their front office Daniel Jeremiah's worked for three different teams it's beginning closer and closer because we have all the same information it's from pro football focus where all the teams subscribe it's from the GPS data that I could find access to we've never been smarter on this end it doesn't mean we're going to have identical opinions this is the draft and I'm not saying he's making you say GPS like GPS data like the thing that's in my car anything you look this you're wrong I love about this advanced stuff I'm talking about the speed and all of the different tracking information that's all shared now between media and the teams because we're all subscribing to the same services my point is it was around this time we were also convinced that Mack Jones is going to go number three to the 49ers three years ago again a middling guy who had won a lot in college and played for a big time program won a national championship well when we finally got to the draft that dude fell to 15 if I had a bet right now JJ McCarthy is going to go much closer to 15 than he will number three all right well we've talked about JJ McCarthy and we've talked about Drake May and Jayne Daniels are you convinced Andrew Callahan that the Patriots are going to take a quarterback not in a specific quarterback this guy but just that position do you think that is going to happen at number three yeah I think so and it speaks to something I hit on earlier right like the idea of job security LA Wolf's contract is up in May same with a lot of front office if you miss on one of these guys say it's Drake May or JJ McCarthy and he takes off somewhere else in Minnesota or wherever and you traded back and the crafts have to not only watch Tom Brady leave four or five years ago they had Anna and in that but his potential successor after Mack Jones go thrive somewhere else and you could have had him that's a fireable offense in two years I think they take the guy it's the right draft it's the right need this is so simple oh yeah they're taking a quarterback it's just which one and where