The New England Patriots have started off their 2024 NFL Draft campaign with a bang.
Not only did they not trade out of the first round for a pick they’ll later use on a second-round DB, they selected the player most pundits pegged as the best fit for them in Drake Maye.
The 21-year-old North Carolina product is 6-foot-4, 230 pounds of awesome, and if history is any indicator, he’s a mortal lock for the Hall of Fame. As we all know, if a quarterback gets drafted high, his success in the NFL is completely guaranteed.
Don’t believe me? Name a single QB drafted Top 3, in the entire history of the NFL Draft, that hasn’t worked out. Go ahead. I’ll wait.
I’m on record several times expressing my ignorance of college football. I watch it casually and enjoy it, but I’m not in the weeds with it the way I am with the NFL. My draft prep is perfunctory at best, and I prefer to leave the analysis to the more qualified folks out there. So, I’m approaching the Maye pick from the perspective of a regular fan as opposed to the wannabe sportswriter I pose as for the rest of the year. And in case there are people out there who, the second Maye’s name was announced, couldn’t help but think, “man…I wonder what Alec Shane thinks about that pick?”, not to worry. I’m here to satisfy your curiosity.
Here’s everything that went through my mind once the pick was in.
He’s got all the pieces. It’s tough to watch Maye’s game tape and dislike what you see. The kid has a cannon for an arm. He’s a big guy, He’s athletic. He’s mobile., He can work the middle of the field and has a great deep ball. He can throw on the run and extend the play. He was the second best QB of his class on many draft boards and rightly so. He’s got some holes in his game for sure and isn’t the most polished player in the draft, but it’s hard not to see why the kid went so high. When there’s a college quarterback of Maye’s caliber available, you’d be foolish not to give him a shot.
The whole draft is a gamble. Nobody has a goddam clue what they’re talking about when it comes to the draft. Nobody knows who will work and who won’t, so you just have to take your shot and hope for the best. The real downside of drafting a QB high in the first round is that odds are you won’t be drafting a QB in the first round anytime soon; Maye is most likely our guy until 2027 come hell or high water.
That means that if he doesn’t work out, it’s back to another rebuild in a few years. But that’s a crap attitude to have, to be honest. Nobody knows a thing and only time will tell. That’s why…
I’m optimistic. One of the real joys of rooting for a bad team is the sense of optimism that comes with that first-round pick. Of course the Patriots are more than a QB away from being contenders, and of course there are going to be some growing pains… but come on now. Why not get excited for what this represents?
You can’t win in this league without a quarterback, and the Patriots have the potential. If you want to poo poo the pick and wax about how they should have traded down, then rock on, Whatever brings you the most joy and satisfaction as a fan. But I for one am going to lean into the excitement of making a sexy draft pick for once and ride the wave of optimism.
I hope Maye doesn’t start right away. As optimistic as I may be, I hope Drake Maye starts his NFL career holding a clipboard. If he absolutely blows everyone away in training camp and preseason, then so be it, but I’ll be a very happy man if Jacoby Brissett is the Patriots’ starter for September and beyond. The bottom line is that it’s a massive, massive leap from college to the pros, and a transition year can do most QBs a lot of good.
If a major Fortune 500 company brought a 21-year-old college frat bro in for an interview and told him, “Welcome aboard, son. We’re going to bring you on as our new CEO right out of the gate. You have two years to completely turn this company around; otherwise, you’re gone and everyone here is going to lose their job,” you’d consider it one of the worst business decisions you had ever heard. But that’s exactly what we do with quarterbacks, especially ones drafted at the top of the draft, and more often than not, it doesn’t end well.
So, even though the Patriots used their most valuable draft pick of the 21st century on the most important position in professional sports, here’s hoping that Maye sit for a few weeks at the very least. Let him learn the system, pick up the pace of the NFL, receive some mentorship from Jacoby Brissett, and start either later this year or Week 1 2025 with confidence and experience.
Phenomenal nickname potential. It’s too bad that “All The Way Maye” is taken, because that would have been solid. But with a name like Drake Maye, there are a ton of great possibilities for one of the best nicknames this team has seen since Sam “Bam” Cunningham.” Drake the Snake. Drake “and Bake” Maye. Maye Day. Broadway Drake Maye, just to stick it to Jets fans.
And those are just off the top of my head. Tons of possibilities here, which should be fun come Fan Notes time.