Drake Maye's NFL Draft evaluation complicated by North Carolina roster turnover

Now almost midway through the 2023 season, analysts have had a chance to watch some of the game’s most highly touted players to see how their professional outlook is shifting. And Drake Maye‘s NFL Draft evaluation is a bit convoluted right now.

The talented North Carolina quarterback hasn’t quite been as sharp as he was a year ago, but the natural talent is still there.

In fact, at least one NFL Draft analyst has Maye as the No. 2 quarterback in the draft class, behind only USC‘s Caleb Williams.

“It’s Drake Maye, the quarterback from North Carolina,” ESPN’s Jordan Reid said on the First Draft podcast. “I still think there’s a sizeable gap between the two. The interesting thing about Drake Maye is that it’s been an interesting year for him just because they lost so much offensively.”

The Tar Heels have had plenty of player turnover, which makes getting a complete assessment on Maye a little more difficult.

“Josh Downs, some other players that they lost, Antoine Green that was a late-round selection that they relied heavily on last year,” Reid explained. “Then they lost their offensive coordinator too, Phil Longo is now at Wisconsin. You can tell it’s been a little bit of a struggle for him to get used to these new weapons, of course. Tez Walker was another player that they were expecting big things from this year and things didn’t work out for him with the NCAA.

“You can tell that he has a lot on his shoulders and he’s trying to overdo things a little bit.”

That’s not to say Maye hasn’t still been impressive, he just hasn’t been able to match the pace of production he had a year ago. And in fairness, he was elite last season.

You can still see glimpses of that from time to time from Maye.

“The flash plays are still the flash plays, and just thinking about the game last week against Pitt he did not get off to a good start,” Reid said. “He did not look very good. But in the second half he makes back-to-back-to-back miraculous throws and you’re like, ‘OK, now I see why this dude is getting compared to Caleb Williams in this draft class.'”

Overall, Reid just thinks the Drake Maye NFL Draft evaluation has been mixed as he’s had to get used to a whole host of new personnel on offense around him.

“He hasn’t played bad or anything like that, I just think he’s trying to overcome so much to where he’s putting a lot more onus on himself this year and he’s making a lot more mistakes than what we saw last year,” Reid said. “But he’s made plenty flashes this year, even the left-handed throw against Pitt, little stuff like that of where you see him make those throws. He’s still been good, but he’s made a little bit more mistakes than what we saw last year.”