The Michigan football team finished up their 2023 season last month with a win against Washington in the national title to cap off a perfect 15-0 season. Fans of the Wolverines have been waiting for a season like this for a long time, and they finally were able to pull it off this year. Quarterback JJ McCarthy led the team to its first national title since 1997, and now he is heading to the NFL.

JJ McCarthy came to the Michigan football team with a lot of goals, and he ended up accomplishing all of them. He wanted to flip the rivalry with Ohio State, he wanted to get the Wolverines back on top of the Big Ten and most of all, he wanted to win a national championship. McCarthy accomplished everything that he set out to accomplish.

There were a lot of ups and downs that Michigan went through to get to the national title game, and a lot of their key players that came back this season could've gone to the NFL. They all came back for one common goal: to win a national championship. The Wolverines accomplished that goal, and now, they are hoping to continue that success going forward, and the momentum they have built can help make that happen. It's going to be difficult without players like McCarthy, though.

Let's take a look at what JJ McCarthy and this team went through to end up achieving McCarthy's ultimate goal this season. It can't be overstated how important it is to McCarthy's career.

First, head coach Jim Harbaugh started off the season at home for the Wolverines as he faced a self-imposed three-game suspension because of some minor recruiting violations. That wasn't a big deal, however, as Michigan started the season with home games against East Carolina, UNLV and Bowling Green. McCarthy and the Wolverines were fine for those games, but that wasn't the only suspension that Harbaugh would face in the season.

Around the halfway point of the season, news broke that the Michigan football team was being investigated for illegal sign stealing. The culprit ended up being a low-level staffer named Connor Stalions.

Stalions bought tickets for friends and others to go to future opponents games and videotape the sidelines with their cell phones. After the investigation had been going on for a couple of weeks, Stalions resigned. People began to doubt McCarthy and Michigan, saying that the only reason they had been successful in recent years was because of the sign-stealing.

Jim Harbaugh was able to coach for Michigan for a couple of weeks after the investigation started, but then, with three weeks remaining, he was suspended by the Big Ten for the final three weeks of the regular season, and offensive coordinator Sherrone Moore had to take over head-coaching duties for the most daunting stretch of the Michigan season: @ #10 Penn State, @ Maryland and vs. #2 Ohio State. Also, they suspended him less than 24 hours before the Penn State game while the Michigan team plane was on the way to Happy Valley.

The sign-stealing investigation started as something very bad for the Michigan football team, but it actually gave the Wolverines an extra spark. This team already had all of the motivation in the world to go out and win a national title, and then they started to hear all the outsiders say that the only reason they had won the last two seasons was because they were cheating. A big reason why they were able to turn things around is leaders like McCarthy.

Michigan then took down Penn State and Ohio State without Harbaugh, won their third-straight Big Ten title, beat Alabama in the Rose Bowl and then took down Washington to win the national title. It was a massively important season of football in Ann Arbor. JJ McCarthy accomplished all of his goals.

Now, McCarthy is heading to the NFL, and everyone is curious where he is going to end up. When the college football season first ended, McCarthy looked like a late first round pick or early second round pick, but he has been steadily climbing up draft boards since then. Now, some people have him as high as being QB2 in the draft. It's going to be interesting to see where McCarthy ends up and also how he does at the NFL Combine. Here are some teams that would be a good fit for McCarthy.

Minnesota Vikings

One team that has been talked about a decent amount as a good landing spot for JJ McCarthy is the Minnesota Vikings. There is a good chance that the Vikings will take a quarterback with their first pick, and depending how the combine goes and who is on the board, McCarthy could be their guy. The Vikings have the 11th pick in the draft, and now, it certainly looks like McCarthy could be taken that high.

The Vikings dealt with a lot of injury trouble last year at the QB position, and Kirk Cousins is getting older each year. This could be the draft where they look for their next franchise QB, and McCarthy could be the man for the job. It would be interesting to see what would happen with veteran wide receiver Justin Jefferson if they took a rookie QB. Even if he wanted out, McCarthy would still have some young talent at the receiver position to work with like Jordan Addison. He could end up being a good fit in Minnesota.

Atlanta Falcons

The Atlanta Falcons are another team that has been talked about a lot for McCarthy. The young offensive core of McCarthy, Bijan Robinson, Kyle Pitts and Drake London could be special. The Falcons have the 8th pick in the draft, and that could end up being a little bit high for McCarthy, but you never know. He has been rising for awhile now, and he hasn't even thrown at the NFL Combine yet. There are still two months before the draft, and he could continue to rise.

If the Falcons like what they see at the combine, it wouldn't be surprising to see them take McCarthy. That much young talent on the Atlanta offense would certainly make the future look bright.