Michigan Football: Preview and predictions for quarterbacks in 2021

Looking ahead to the quarterback position for the 2021 Michigan football season with a preview and some predictions. 

Michigan football is less than two weeks away from its season-opening game against Western Michigan on Sept. 4 at the Big House.

The Wolverines have now been taking part in fall camp for nearly three weeks and the depth chart is starting to take shape.

Over the next two weeks, leading up to the opener, we’ll be previewing each position for the Michigan football team, along with making some predictions for the group during the 2021 season.

We’ll start today with the game’s most important position: Quarterback.

Michigan football quarterback depth chart

Starter: Cade McNamara

Backups: J.J. McCarthy, Alan Bowman, Dan Villari

Jim Harbaugh hasn’t named Cade McNamara the starting quarterback officially but it’s certainly expected at this point. The former four-star quarterback has taken tremendous steps as a leader by all accounts, which is huge for a program that had issues with the culture.

"“Cade’s leadership – since I’ve been here, I haven’t seen a quarterback really take charge like he has,” fourth-year left tackle Ryan Hayes said. “He’s really trying to lead, he’s really putting that effort in, he’s not afraid to tell you when you need something or he wants something from you. So it’s been nice to have – nice change.”"

While five-star J.J. McCarthy has certainly pushed McNamara during fall camp, Cade has been the better quarterback, something Sam Webb of the Michigan Insider reported again Monday (subscription required).

Cade is more experienced and is just steadier at this point in his career, he’s likely going to be better at avoiding mistakes, even if he doesn’t have the talent McCarthy does.

Even though McNamara will start the season, McCarthy is going to play. The coaching staff should get him on the field whenever necessary and at some point, it would be nice to see what he can do in some competitive situations too.

However, if the Wolverines start the season strongly under McNamara, that might be hard to do. The game against Washington is going to be critical.

U-M is going to rely heavily on the running game this season and it should. The offensive line and running backs could be the two best positions groups on offense, so it’s not like McNamara or even McCarthy would have to carry the offense.

Ronnie Bell, Cornelius Johnson, Daylen Baldwin, Roman Wilson, A.J. Henning, and Erick All, among others, offer some promising targets. Looking back to 2015, it would be great to see a trio of backs have success this season as Michigan did that year.

The offense had an accurate quarterback and some solid passing threats, but the running game was the identity. That and a really good defense.

Whether or not the defense can get back to being a solid defense remains to be seen. But the quarterback play should improve this season. In the times we’ve seen McNamara, you can tell he knows his job is to distribute the football. He’ll do that this season, even if his arm isn’t dynamic.

2021 quarterback predictions

In four of Harbaugh’s six seasons, Michigan football quarterbacks have combined to throw at least 20 touchdown passes and I believe that will happen this season.

Most of them will come from McNamara. I can see him throwing for 2,500 yards, as well as around 18 touchdowns. I’m going to guess that his interceptions total are low, in the range of 5-7.

McCarthy will get a few touchdown passes too but unless McNamara really struggles, I don’t think we’ll see him a whole lot after the first few games.

It’s possible that Dan Villari will have a role as a runner this year too. It’s something Harbaugh talked about but is probably something that won’t matter much during the regular season.

This Michigan football team feels like an 8-9 win squad, and much of that belief is based on the idea that McNamara can be solid, if not spectacular this season for the Wolverines.