Quarterback Drake Maye finished his North Carolina Tar Heels career with 8,018 passing yards, 1,209 ... [+]
As the first round of the 2024 NFL draft reached the New England Patriots, so did Drake Maye.
The University of North Carolina product got the call at pick No. 3 overall on Thursday night, continuing a quarterback run that began with the Chicago Bears taking USC’s Caleb Williams and the Washington Commanders taking LSU’s Jayden Daniels.
Offers to move down had been fielded by the war room in Foxborough. But the rights to the franchise’s highest selection since 1993 would remain there.
Maye, 21, made 26 starts during his Tar Heels career. After enrolling early and appearing in four games as a redshirt behind current Seattle Seahawk Sam Howell, the eventual FWAA Freshman All-American earned first-team All-ACC, ACC Rookie of the Year and ACC Player of the Year honors in 2022.
In the process, Maye set North Carolina’s single-season record with 4,321 passing yards and tied for the program’s single-season mark with 38 passing touchdowns. And last fall, second-team All-ACC honors arrived while he led the conference with 3,608 passing yards and ranked third in the FBS with an average of 338.1 yards of total offense per game.
The tenure in Chapel Hill saw Maye go 618-of-952 through the air for 8,018 yards with 63 touchdowns and 16 interceptions. On the ground, 302 carries became 1,209 yards and an additional 16 trips to the end zone.
The former four-star recruit out of Charlotte’s Myers Park High School finished as a two-time team captain. He went 17-9 as UNC’s starter under center.
Maye did so while blending the size, mobility, fearlessness and arm talent to climb the pocket, elude rushers, keep eyes downfield and test tight windows. The off-platform plays fit the modern archetype. The growing pains in terms of throwing mechanics, footwork and decision-making come with it. Pro Football Focus charted him for a 7.5% big-time throw rate and a 1.9% turnover-worthy play rate in 2023.
“You can tell he has that leadership ability. And also, the exciting part about a guy like Drake Maye is the ceiling,” Patriots head coach Jerod Mayo told reporters at the NFL’s annual league meetings in March. “Like, there really is no ceiling with a guy like that. Now, in saying that while we’re trying to put together this roster, I know a lot of people look at the ceiling. But you also got to kind of see how low is the floor. And I would say a guy like Drake Maye, he has a lot of room to grow. He’s a young guy. Honestly, he hasn’t played football nearly as much as these other guys, so that’s definitely something that we’ve looked at. But he definitely is going to develop.”
Maye measured in at 6-foot-4, 223 pounds at the NFL Scouting Combine. He met with the Patriots while in Indianapolis and again at his pro day. An official “30” visit to Gillette Stadium followed.
Under new offensive coordinator Alex Van Pelt, the incoming rookie joins a post-Mac Jones quarterback room of four. The position also includes Bailey Zappe, Nathan Rourke and veteran Jacoby Brissett, a 48-game starter and member of New England’s 2016 draft class who returned on a one-year, $8 million deal in March.
“We signed Jacoby because he’s a good player,” Patriots director of scouting Eliot Wolf said during his pre-draft press conference last week. “He’s a big, strong, relentless preparer in terms of his ability to take the gameplan and apply it through the week to Sunday. He’s got a good arm. He’s big and strong. And we feel like if we end up drafting a quarterback high, he is someone that can support that player and would be a positive influence on them — while competing with them.”
The draft-and-develop plan reached the next step for the organization at No. 3.
