CJ Carr, 'a wizard' on and off field, impresses NFL scouts while helping Notre Dame teammates
· Yahoo Sports
SOUTH BEND — Having an extra six weeks this offseason gave Notre Dame football quarterback CJ Carr a chance to watch more NFL games than he normally would.
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Along the way, he gained a greater appreciation for a former Detroit Lions quarterback who has blossomed into a Super Bowl champion and a league MVP out west.
“I watched a ton of Matthew Stafford, who was just unbelievable,” Carr said of the Rams’ leader. “I had never watched him.”
Previously, for Carr, it was all about the retired Tom Brady, Michigan man, and the mercurial Aaron Rodgers.
“I was a big Brady guy, a big Rodgers guy last year, and I had in my mind it was Brady/Rogers,” Carr said. “And someone was like, ‘Go turn on the Rams this year.’“
Good call. Coach Sean McVay’s Rams rode the sport’s top scoring offense (30.5 average) to 14 wins and a narrow road loss in the NFC Championship against Seattle.
Stafford, at age 37, passed for more than 5,600 yards (including the playoffs) and 52 touchdowns with just nine interceptions. Former Notre Dame running back Kyren Williams enjoyed his third straight 1,000-yard rushing season, and it seemed the receiving combo of Puka Nacua and Davonte Adams (189 combined regular-season receptions) was always open.
“The things they're doing schematically and the throws that (Stafford) makes, it just was like, ‘Yeah, OK. That throw is possible to be made.’“
Carr shook his head in amazement.
“And you're seeing that up and down the tape,” he said. “Watching people play football at a really high level — just watching it, not even really dissecting it — can really give you a lot of confidence.”
It also put a few ideas in the head of an uber-talented young quarterback who has already tried a few of those Stafford no-look passes in game situations.
“Being able to see it and say, ‘OK, well, this sucker's making it. Let's try it. Let's go out there and try it, see what it looks like,’“ Carr said. “And let's get some under-center in and see how can we manipulate a flat defender? It was all great. I think it's helped me for sure.”
CJ Carr, Notre Dame's 'wizard' of quarterback play
Carr’s first spring practice as the returning starter included a pair of downfield interceptions into the greedy hands of star safety Tae Johnson.
The same sort of thing played out on Day 1 last summer when Carr was still locked in a duel with Kenny Minchey for the starting role. Those picks felt different this time for all involved, even bringing a smile to the face of offensive coordinator Mike Denbrock.
“I knew exactly what was going to happen when the ball came out,” Denbrock said. “That ball was going down the field, no matter what. It didn’t make any difference how deep the safety was or anything else. (Carr) was going to launch it. I got a chuckle out of that on the sidelines, just to myself, because I knew what was coming.”
Maybe that was the Stafford influence. Or maybe that’s just who Carr is at heart: A risk-taker, a fearless gambler, a young man who recently revealed on an in-house podcast, “Wake Up the Echoes,” that he grew up as a huge fan of Harry Potter.
Carr sheepishly volunteered he used to charge his parents $5 admission fees to watch him perform magic “mini-shows” in the family living room. At Notre Dame he has apparently left teammates amazed by his numbers-based mentalist capabilities.
“I am a wizard,” Carr joked a couple of different times.
Anyone who saw Carr’s first career touchdown pass, a scrambling, spinning number in last year’s loss to Miami that somehow wound up in the hands of Micah Gilbert, would be apt to agree.
“It makes it more exciting,” Denbrock said, “especially when you’ve got somebody who, whether he should or not, wants to push the ball vertically down the field and be aggressive."
NFL scouts were playing close attention to CJ Carr
Carr’s willingness to stretch the field helped him finish last season with 9.4 yards per pass attempt, tied for second nationally with Heisman Trophy runner-up Diego Pavia.
With Jeremiyah Love and Jadarian Price dominating the proceedings at times, Carr finished with a 24-6 touchdown/interception ratio and 2,741 passing yards to go with a 66.6% completion rate.
When Carr took the field at Tuesday’s Pro Day as the designated passer, NFL scouts weren’t just jotting notes on Malachi Fields, Will Pauling, Eli Raridon and Price. They also were closely watching Carr, who is getting plenty of early hype as a potential No. 1 overall pick in the 2027 NFL Draft.
“It was kind of bittersweet,” Carr said. “That's the last time you'll get to throw a deep ball to Will or Malachi. It was sad, but it was also really cool to go out there and try to just put those guys in a good enough situation where they can show (their) amazing skill sets.”
Sure, they were just routes on air, but time after time Carr put the ball on a line exactly where it was supposed to go.
“I'm going to be able to watch TV next year,” Carr said, “and my friends are going to be in the NFL, killing it.”
It shouldn’t be too much longer before “Carr the Magnificent” joins them, a plume of white smoke, and maybe a national championship, in his wake.
Mike Berardino covers Notre Dame football for the South Bend Tribune and NDInsider.com. Follow him on social media @MikeBerardino.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Notre Dame quarterback CJ Carr impresses NFL scouts at Pro Day