Drake Maye praises UNC's deep receiver room

The North Carolina Tar Heels are off to an explosive start to the season offensively, ranking as a top-10 scoring and total offense through two games. Elite red zone offense has been a big part of that, aided by the emergence of UNC’s deep receiver room.

All of that happening — at least last week — without two of the projected top targets on the team.

Veteran leading receiver Josh Downs missed the 63-61 barn-burner against Appalachian State with a knee injury, while 2021’s second-leading receiver, Antoine Green, suffered a collarbone injury in a fall scrimmage and has yet to play.

No veterans, no problem for the Tar Heels, though.

“No doubt. I think getting everybody involved, the whole team’s happy,” quarterback Drake Maye said. “I think we’re doing a good job creating depth.”

Deep receiver room happy to share the load

It isn’t often a team can sustain the loss of its top two targets and a multi-year starting quarterback in the passing game and somehow still pile up 323 yards per game through the air.

Yet here stand the Tar Heels two games in, looking to build.

Seven different targets have averaged at least two catches per game. Tight end Bryson Nesbit and receiver J.J. Jones both check in with seven catches for 100 yards. Nesbit has two touchdowns, Jones one. Receiver Kobe Paysour has nine catches for 99 yards and a score. Downs had nine for 78 yards and two scores in the opener before missing last week’s contest.

Receiver Gavin Blackwell, tight end Kamari Morales and running back D.J. Jones have combined for 14 catches for 184 yards and three touchdowns.

“I think the biggest benefit is just not feeling forced to feed one guy,” Maye said. “I think all the guys know that they’re cheering for each other. Nobody’s going to the sideline mad they’re not getting the ball. It also makes it tough on the defense. Game-planning us they’ve got seven or eight guys they’ve got to worry about that all can do different things and they all do them differently and they do them well. So I think that makes it tough on defensive coordinators.”

UNC could be deadly when fully healthy

Say what you will about the talent UNC lost from a year ago or the competition faced so far. It’s hard to knock what the Tar Heels have done offensively.

Maye has been a revelation, going 53-of-72 passing for 646 yards and nine touchdowns. He hasn’t thrown an interception.

Everyone is getting into the act, something the Tar Heels haven’t always been able to say during the Mack Brown era. There’s been a drop-off of more than 500 yards receiving from UNC’s second-leading target to the third in each of Brown’s three previous years in charge.

Could that change now that he’s working with a deep UNC receiver room that just might be his best yet?

Sure seems that way so far.

“That was one of the big points last year, we kind of had some front-runner guys and after that we kind of dropped off a little bit,” Maye pointed out. “But I think credit to Kobe and the young receivers and the freshman running backs getting in here and going to work.

“I think, like I keep saying, defensive coordinators are having trouble scheming us because they can’t just focus in on one player, especially Josh and AG, they’re coming back. They’re going to have a lot under their belt, so we’re going to be pretty scary.”