Following a miserable two-season playoff drought in what turned out to be the final two seasons under six-time Super Bowl champion head coach/general manager Bill Belichick, the New England Patriots seem to be all-in on their quarterback of the future this year.
Rumors persisted in the weeks leading up to the start of the NFL draft on Thursday that the team, which finished with a brutal 4-13 record and was rewarded with the No. 3 pick in the draft as a result, would be amenable to moving down in the draft, forgoing one of the top picks and instead acquiring more future equity.
According to Albert Breer of Sports Illustrated, a pair of NFC teams both strived to pry the third pick away from fresh New England general manager Eliot Wolf via tantalizing trade offers.
“The Minnesota Vikings and New York Giants did make offers to the New England Patriots for the No. 3 pick to take Drake Maye,” Breer reports. “Earlier this week, Minnesota offered the Nos. 11 and 23 picks, and its 2025 first-rounder, with pick swaps favoring the Vikings as part of the proposal; and that offer ticked up with New England on the clock. The Giants, meanwhile, did wind up putting their 2025 first-round pick in their offer to move from No. 6 to No. 3.”
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Instead, the Pats decided to, well, stand pat. New England drafted Maye, the third consecutive quarterback selected after now-Chicago Bears signal caller Caleb Williams (formerly of USC) and now-Washington Commanders quarterback Jaden Daniels (formerly of LSU).
Maye, 21, is a 6-foot-4, 223-pound prospect with a long history of Tar Heels roots. He was honored as the ACC Player of the Year, the ACC Offensive Player of the Year, and the ACC Rookie of the Year in 2022 (he redshirted his true freshman season in 2021, playing in just four contests behind starting UNC quarterback Sam Howell), and made a pair of All-ACC teams in 2022 and 2023.
During his first season as the team’s full-time starter in 2022, Maye passed for 4,321 total yards, completing 342-of-517 total attempts (66.2 percent), while notching 38 touchdowns against just seven interceptions. He finished with a 157.9 passer rating. Last year, he passed for a still-great 3,608 yards on 269-of-425 pass tries, as well as 24 touchdowns. He logged a 149 passer rating. Last year, Maye passed for over 400 yards against Syracuse, Miami, and Campbell.
New England has been on the hunt for its long-term quarterback solution since letting three-time MVP and six-time Patriots Super Bowl champ Tom Brady depart for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers as a free agent in 2020. Mac Jones, Cam Newton, and Bailey Zappe were all auditioned, though no one could adequately fill Brady’s cleats. Now, it’s Maye’s turn to try.
A whopping six quarterbacks were picked in the NFL draft’s top 12 this year, as several clubs look to improve perhaps the most important position in the game on their respective rosters. Though he’s not as highly regarded as Williams and may not quite hit the ceiling of Daniels, Maye’s size and ability make him one of the safer bets on the board.
Uncommon Knowledge
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.