Draft Profile: UNC Quarterback Drake Maye
Breaking down UNC QB Drake Maye to see what makes him one of the top QB prospects in this draft class
The opinions on UNC quarterback Drake Maye appear to be among the most split of any quarterback in this draft class. There are plenty of analysts who think he’s right up there with, or even above Caleb Williams as the top quarterback in this class. There are others who think he’s overrated and is probably the third or fourth best quarterback and a significant drop off from Williams and a few others. I’ve seen people I highly respect argue the case on both sides of this one, so I was intrigued to really dive into studying Maye and find out what he’s all about.
First, let’s start with the positives. The upside for Maye is through the roof. I generally don’t like doing comparisons to other players, especially when it comes to quarterbacks, but it’s easy to see why Maye gets compared to Justin Herbert and Josh Allen so frequently. You only have to watch a cut up of his deep throws to see a glimpse of his talent.
I’ve clipped together some of his best deep throws here, starting with a few slot fades and then some go balls down the sideline. I could be picky about some of the deep throws I’ve seen from Maye, but generally he throws a very good deep ball that is on the money more often than not. You can see how all of these throws have a nice arc to them which makes it easier for the receiver to track and run under them, but also have enough velocity on them so that the receiver isn’t having to slow down and wait for the ball to arrive.
Now those are all very nice throws and will rightly be on highlight reels of Maye throughout this draft season, but they’re all largely the result of Maye seeing a one-on-one matchup he liked outside and taking a shot. That’s not a bad thing at all, but I think it also is a discredit to Maye is capable of mentally when attacking down the field. Maye is very good at reading the rotation and leverage of safeties, understanding when certain concepts can put them in a bind or when the rotation leaves the defense vulnerable.
This clip shows multiple examples of Maye reading and attacking safety rotations and leverage. On the first play of the clip, Maye reads the safety staying shallow and biting up underneath. He knows the slot receiver is running up the seam and if that safety stays shallow, he could rip that ball behind him for a touchdown. Maye checks the safety as he drops back and spots him playing too shallow, so Maye throws the ball behind him to the slot receiver, leading him towards the middle of the field and away from the slot corner for a touchdown.
On the second play of the clip, Maye is presented with a two deep safety look pre-snap which might suggest some form of quarters or Cover-2. After the snap, he checks the rotation and notices the safety to his right is diving heavily inside to cover the slot receiver on a crossing route. Maye instantly recognizes that this leaves the middle of the field vacant and that he has the outside receiver running a post route against a corner playing with outside leverage. Maye adjusts his vision outside and sees that while the corner is still on top of the route, he has outside leverage so Maye can afford to lead his receiver inside towards the vacated middle of the field and away from the coverage. He delivers an excellent ball that hits his receiver in stride and picks up a big gain.
On the third and final play of the clip, Maye is faced with a similar situation pre-snap with two deep safeties showing a potential quarters or Cover-2 look. Once he snaps the ball, Maye focuses on the deep safety to the right side of the field. He spots that safety locking in on the slot receiver and not gaining enough depth. It appears to be a quarters coverage, so that safety needs to gain depth and help bracket the post route from the outside receiver to help the corner playing with outside leverage again. This time, Maye makes his throw much deeper to attack over the top of the shallow safety, while having the comfort of knowing that the outside corner is playing with heavier outside leverage than we saw on the previous play. He makes a perfect throw and the receiver has a walk-in touchdown as a result.
Being able to read safety rotations and attack their leverage shows that there is far more to Maye’s game than just throwing nice deep shots. In fact, there’s plenty of evidence of a quarterback that understands different coverages, leverages defenders play within those coverages and how the route combinations being run can exploit those weaknesses. UNC obviously doesn’t have a playbook as diverse as one Maye will see in the NFL, but they do run plenty of concepts that you will see across the NFL regularly and Maye has shown he can read out those concepts against various coverages.
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