School: UNC
Position: QB
Year: Redshirt Sophomore
The Good: A 6’4, 230lbs, 21 year-old QB who declares for the NFL Draft is going to tempt NFL decision makers as long as humans inhabit the earth. Maye has two full seasons of big production under his belt; he was the 2022 ACC Player of the Year behind a 38:7 TD:INT ratio, and then he backed it up in 2023 with similar play. Maye can throw the crap out of a football; the ball glides out of his right hand, he delivers on deep balls with consistency, and he can really layer the ball to all parts of the field. Maye nails multiple big-time throws every game he plays, and it helps that he can do it from both within and outside of the pocket. It’s a real strength of Maye’s game that he can regularly create his ideal throwing lanes. Physically, there are minimal concerns with Maye; he has proven that he can survive a bevy of hits, and he throws through contact well, too. Mentally, Maye is reactionary, situationally aware, and mostly a good decision maker on where to go with the football.
The Bad: Maye comes into the NFL with some mechanical issues, mainly that he has a slow release by pro standards and that his pronounced throwing motion can lead to spiked passes and straight-up misses. He’s pretty robotic working through his progressions, too. I’ve already covered that Maye can deliver haymakers to defenses with his arm, but the uglier side of that ability is Maye’s bad habit of passing up singles for home run swings. Even in the most aggressive of offenses, Maye will need to adjust his ratio of taking the high-percentage plays in front of him. I can’t say I’m a fan of Maye as a runner, either. He’s a more rugged runner than a QB should be and his evasiveness is average at best; frankly, Maye just isn’t a good enough runner to decide to run as much as he does. Hopefully that trend stays behind at Chapel Hill. Maybe more paramount than other concerns, though, is that Maye does not adjust for pressure well enough in general. He’s quick to drop his eyes, especially as he’s getting rattled, and his NFL coaches will need to get to work with him immediately on developing pre-snap plans. Maye currently plays too on the fly and can start off on the wrong read, and his anticipation isn’t all the way there yet, either. And while every quarterback is going to have an errant throw or down drive every so often, Maye is prone to bad quarters, halves, or even games.
The Bottom Line: I get the appeal in Drake Maye, I really do. And I’m not just hedging my evaluation as someone who is about to hit publish on a profile that’s lower on him as a prospect than the consensus. I’ll put it this way: my favorite team is the Giants, and I’d be delighted if they took him with the sixth overall pick. There’s a not-so-crazy future where Maye continues to ramp up his creativity as he matures and takes more control of his offense, leading him to becoming one of the best playmakers at the position in the league. The ultra optimistic comparison for Maye would be someone like Ben Roethlisberger. I’m coming into the clubhouse not feeling ultra optimistic about Maye’s NFL outcome, though. He still plays so young; the game moves fast for him and he just too often makes things too hard on himself. It’s fair to put in writing that Maye has middling accuracy, too. It all amounts to a combination that we’ve seen before in high-end QB prospects that flop. Not necessarily a prospect that quickly flames out of the league, but one whose team’s patience might run thin – especially as the league moves further in the directions towards more short stints for Head Coaches/GMs and more offenses that need accurate processors rather than superheroes at the position.
Grade: Mid First Round
Pro Comp: Sam Darnold
Games Watched:
- App State 2022
- Notre Dame 2022
- Pitt 2022
- Duke 2022
- Wake 2022
- Clemson 2022 (ACC Championship)
- Oregon 2022 (Holiday Bowl)
- South Carolina 2023
- Minnesota 2023
- Pitt 2023
- Miami 2023
- UVA 2023
- Duke 2023
- Clemson 2023
Epiblogue 