Where Drake Maye falls in predicting top five quarterbacks for 2023 regular season

North Carolina is poised for another breakout year under the arm of star quarterback Drake Maye. Building off his record-breaking redshirt freshman season — the Tar Heel legacy is expected to be one of college football’s elite.

In a list of who will be regarded as a top-five quarterback this coming season, On3’s JD PicKell joined the hype train and ranked Maye as the No. 2 quarterback when the 2023 season is all said and done.

“When you look at Drake Maye in November — when you look at his body of work, make sure you’re looking at his stats and not North Carolina’s record,” PicKell said. “Last year, he willed them to six one-score wins. That is a lot of games to come out on the right side of. Will that repeat itself? I don’t know.

“… But with Drake Maye, I call him ‘No Drama Drizzy.’ The reason why I say that you know what you’re getting in him. We knew what we were getting with him as a recruit … There’s no drama with him, man. He’s going to walk out there every Saturday and drop buckets. That’s going to be how he lives. Probably going to be the No. 2 player selected in the NFL Draft.”

Maye finished his redshirt freshman season with 4,321 yards, fourth-most by any FBS quarterback, and threw 38 touchdowns compared to just seven interceptions. His 82.4 QBR ranked 10th in the country as well. Even more impressively, it was his first season as the team’s starter.

Under Maye’s guidance, North Carolina finished 9-5 last season after losing both of their outings in the postseason and their last four total. Before that, the Tar Heels were sitting at 9-1 before dropping their last two regular-season games by a combined seven points, getting blown out by Clemson in the ACC title game, and falling to Oregon by one point due to a touchdown in the final minute of the Holiday Bowl.

While North Carolina has lost quite a bit of production on offense, the Tar Heels return Gavin Blackwell, Kobe Paysour and Andre Greene are all returning and combined for 50 receptions for 589 yards and 6 touchdowns. Before transferring to UNC from Georgia Tech, McCollum compiled 75 catches for 778 yards and 4 touchdowns. Walker caught 58 passes for 921 yards and 11 scores at Kent State last season.

Maye has the rest of summer and fall training camp to develop chemistry with his new wideouts, and his passing prowess is set to be on full display for North Carolina’s season opener on Sept. 2 against South Carolina inside Bank of America Stadium.