Every year during the NFL draft cycle, the media tends to overthink certain players, especially quarterbacks. The long break between the NFL Combine and the NFL Draft gives us too much time to sit back and fall into the play-action that is the smokescreen and overthinking of the NFL Draft.
This year, the NFL decided to take a careful look at North Carolina QB Drake Maye. Drake Maye was a QB2 (QB1A in my eyes) for most of the NFL Draft, but then started to falter. Maye could fall to QB4 in this class, as Michigan State QB JJ McCarthy is starting to get the attention of NFL front offices.
But don’t get me wrong. Maye is a special QB candidate for him, and he’s probably best suited to start immediately behind USC’s Caleb Williams.
One of the first things that stands out about Maye is his aggressiveness in throwing the ball downfield. He has top-notch arm talent and the aggression to make every throw downfield. In 2023, Maye’s 76 pass attempts of 20 or more air yards are the consensus top six QBs (Maye, Williams, McCarthy, LSU(Jaden Daniels of Oregon, Bo Nix of Oregon, Michael Penix Jr. of Washington). Of those 76 passes, 34 on-target throws of over 20 air yards also rank second among top QB candidates by consensus. Maye is aggressive with long balls and can drop passes into the bucket that test the defense vertically.
Maye has great processing ability and executes home run swings when he finds one-on-one coverage downfield. This is very helpful against quarter coverage where her second receiver in the slot can isolate the corner with a safety playing any route. This touchdown to WR Tez Walker puts Miami in the quarters. With the safety playing low, I knew that if the CB used leverage on the outside, May could put this big post over the safety’s head. May peered to his left, unhurriedly adjusted his feet, and put a dime directly into Walker’s hands for the touchdown. See how easy and smooth this process is. The ball flies out of May’s hand.
Here, May is working on play-action based on a super sail concept (the outside receiver runs the go, the slot runs the big corner route). Maye put his feet down a little too much with this concept, causing the ball to come out late, but he corrected that and made a big play downfield. This can be applied at the NFL level, especially to off-the-run action.
Now, let’s talk a little bit about footwork. The reason Maye has slipped from people’s eyes is due to inconsistent footwork, small inefficiencies that separate passes that hit the receiver in his stride and passes that go past him in his overstride. Mei’s footwork itself isn’t bad. It’s more “oomph”, which is a good fit for the Air Raid offense he ran under first Phil Longo and then Chip Lindsey during his time at North Carolina. Longo often talks about the drops he teaches his quarterbacks, which involve more backpedaling than the dropbacks you’d normally see from a quarterback.
This is useful for RPOs and quick games, but standard dropbacks can make your feet a little unstable…to say the least. That’s because May’s footwork seems to have a lot of crossovers and a lot of wasted movement in the passing game. For quick games, it’s not a problem since it’s point and shoot. However, his legs can get a little tangled up in the dropback passing game. Consider this rep from the 2022 bowl game against Oregon. May has open routes, but always watch your step. He had to click his heels and get under his feet, which led to him navigating this pass. Although not a major red flag, there are cracks in the armor that can be repaired.
In 2023, some of his footwork has improved a bit, but heel click is still there.This person is north carolina It shows some clicking of the heels as you move to the right to hit this throw. He clicks and crosses his legs, and the pass will be sailing again.
against Georgia Tech, this pass on the dig gets partially skipped because the left guard is pushed by Decatur (more on that later), but May gets unsteady on his feet and can’t get a good throw, eventually I will make a mistake. The process is good, but the execution is a little wrong. Again, it’s very fixable as he likely has a better coordinator and a better line, but it’s worth mentioning.
Now, you’re probably wondering, “If his footwork is so shaky, why is he a QB 1A?”
On the other hand, I think that’s a great question.
My answer to that is that Maye has the ability to create in the same way that the best young stars at the QB position in the NFL create from the pocket and scramble drills. May is adept at managing the pocket and creating windows for throws to escape, and keeps plenty of golf clubs in his bag to withstand pressure. In the same NC State game in 2023, Maye made some great passes under pressure. This is one of my favorites of his. On 3rd and 3, NC State won with a cover-0 blitz. May leans to the right, but the free runner is coming from there.
May calmly slides to his left to create the slow window he needs to miss this pass and throws a strike for a first down. This is important because not every play can be won outside of the pocket on a freewheel. We see players like CJ Stroud and Jordan Love begin their incredible careers by finding ways to win from the pocket under pressure. Their ability to create windows with arm and pocket movement will be used as a prototype for his younger QBs. Maye has it in part because he needed it for the offense to have anything close to success. The Tar Heels’ offensive line was more unpleasant to the eye than successful, and the talent at the skill positions was neither hot nor cold. It was often down to May to make it work, and when he did it looked great.
He can do this too, which is pretty cool. Maye’s game has been compared to players like Justin Herbert, and yes they are very similar, but I think there is a little more recklessness in Maye’s game. charger‘Signal caller.
Another thing that makes me believe Maye can be a franchise-ready starting QB is his ball placement. He puts his receivers in the best position to catch the ball, even if the results aren’t equal. His ability to make throw after throw downfield while keeping his guys safe is far beyond QBs his age. This throw against NC State wasn’t caught, but you can see the ball placement and the moment of decision here. May has to keep opponents out of range of his safeties on Cover 3 singles, but watch how he leads opponents to the ground and protects them from defenders trying to spread out. Great process and the next level will give you better results (hopefully).
From the end zone angle, Maye knows exactly what he’s doing here and the pass is exactly where he wants it. He can live with this.
His ball placement shows up in the red zone and has enough arm strength to get passes into tight windows while also having the placement and precision to keep defenders at bay. This was a great TD throw against Oregon that showed he can do this at the NFL level.
Maye has his flaws, but nothing an NFL coach can’t fix. But I would go one step further and say Maye could start from day one with the right system. I’m not saying footwork doesn’t matter, but I want the QB to learn and adjust his footwork as he learns it over and over in the game. Similar to the Anthony Richardson conversation last year, Maye has the tools to start right away in a system that suits his strengths.
