It seemed pretty clear in the hours leading up to the 2024 NFL Draft that the New England Patriots were honing in on quarterback Drake Maye.
New England had set a ridiculously high asking price in trade-down talks with teams such as the New York Giants (sixth overall) and Minnesota Vikings (11th overall). Current front office head Eliot Wolf didn’t back down.
Instead, New England stood pat and selected Maye. It came after Caleb Williams went to the Chicago Bears at one and fellow quarterback Jayden Daniels was selected at two by the Washington Commanders.
There is a reason why Maye was considered a top-five prospect in the 2024 NFL Draft. He has loads of talent. Despite a down 2023 season, Maye’s tape speaks for itself. This doesn’t mean that there are not any issues when it comes to New England attempting to find its franchise quarterback.
Related: Updated 2024 NFL Draft tracker
New England Patriots could have made mistake by selecting Drake Maye
- First off, the Pats just don’t have a supporting cast to help Maye out of the gate. Their top wide receivers right now are Demario Douglas and Kendrick Bourne. They combined to catch 86 passes a season ago. Signing K.J. Osborn is not going to change the dynamics too much.
- Drake Maye is not ready to play out of the gate. He’s not great under pressure, struggles to an extent with mechanics, is not too accurate on intermediate routes and isn’t someone who will get through his progressions soundly. Don’t take our word for that. Check out his scouting report from Lance Zierlein of NFL Media.
- As noted above, New England received a ton of interest in the No. 3 pick from the Vikings and Giants. Why not trade down from the third selection and add more assets? This team won four games a season ago. It averaged less than 14 points per game. Simply put, the Patriots are not a quarterback away from contention. Build the roster and then focus on the quarterback position.
Sure, Maye very well be a good quarterback in time. He has loads of talent. But he’s not set up to succeed out of the gate. At the very least, it will be a maturation process. We saw how that worked with Bryce Young and a talent-stricken Carolina Panthers team a season ago.