ormer Denver Broncos tight end Jake Butt spent three seasons with the organization after they selected him in the fifth round of the 2017 draft.
Before that, Butt spent four years in Ann Arbor with the Michigan Wolverines. Perhaps then it is school spirit, but Butt is also a big proponent of fellow former Wolverine and 2024 quarterback prospect J.J. McCarthy.
“I would have loved to say J.J. was my quarterback. It’s everything about him,” Butt said, per the Denver Post’s Troy Renck on March 24. “It’s the way he gets the play call out and controls the huddle. Before a word leaves a quarterback’s lips, his teammates better know he’s dialed in. That you know the motions, and checks, and will put us in the right play checks all the boxes.
“He played in a system in Michigan and was never asked to win by himself,” Butt said, per Renck. “It was not sexy. And I think that’s to his advantage. Some guys would have pressed in his position. J.J. understood that he could only lose the game by making mistakes. He was extremely disciplined with the football.
“Throw on the tape, and you will see he can make all the throws.”
Butt went on to say that Broncos head coach Sean Payton is a “hard (expletive).” But he noted that former Michigan head coach Jim Harbaugh – now of the Los Angeles Chargers – is cut from a similar cloth.
McCarthy, Butt said, never wavered and stands a good chance of succeeding at the next level because of it.
