Mel Kiper makes case for New England Patriots to draft Drake Maye third-overall

On Tuesday, ESPN’s Mel Kiper Jr. released his 2024 NFL Draft Mock Draft 1.0. He followed that up with his draft special later in the day to discuss how he views everything shaking out.

In this year’s draft, the third overall pick belongs to the New England Patriots, who are ushering in a new era under newly hired head coach Jerod Mayo after parting ways with legendary six-time Super Bowl-winning head coach Bill Belichick. Now that the Patriots have a new voice at head coach, Kiper believes they will bring in a new signal caller at No. 3 and former North Carolina Tar Heels quarterback Drake Maye.

“The third pick’s a quarterback,” said Kiper. “The number three quarterback, in recent years, has been pretty good overall really go back into history with Ben Roethlisberger behind [Phillip] Rivers and [Eli] Manning; Josh Allen behind [Sam] Darnold and Baker [Mayfield]. Think about [Justin] Herbert behind Tua [Tagovailoa] and Joe Burrow.”

For New England fans concerned that they are getting the short end of the stick with Maye as the third quarterback selected in the draft, Kiper uses the history of previous drafts to highlight why this could be a blessing in disguise for the Patriots. Still, that does not explain why the NFL draft guru has the former Tar Heels star quarterback as the third quarterback taken off the board in as many picks. To further illustrate his reasoning there, Kiper compares Maye’s performance in 2023 to how he fared in 2022.

“You look at Drake Maye to be number three overall. Why is he three, not two or one? Had some struggles. He had some games that made you scratch [your] head saying, ‘What’s going on here?’ NC State game [he had] a couple of picks; he’s at 58 percent. [In the] Virginia game, they are a big favorite, 24-point favorite. He struggled with throws that he should have completed in that game.”

“But he had a new coordinator; he didn’t have Josh Downs. And in 2022, when he had Downs and Green [and] he had complimentary players around him and a system, he was really outstanding leading and developing his skills; he was a top pick and could have challenged Caleb Williams [for] number one overall,” said Kiper.

Maye struggles to repeat magic of 2022 season in 2023

North Carolina experienced a decent amount of turnover throughout their offensive coaching staff during the 2023 offseason. And all that movement was in hopes that the Tar Heels would find themselves in a better position than they did to end the 2022 season. Unfortunately, North Carolina finished slightly worse in 2023 than they did in 2022, missing out on the ACC title game and finishing with an 8-5 record compared to 9-5 the season prior.

As for Maye, the change in productivity was significantly noticeable. In 2022, he finished this season completing 342-517 or 66.2 percent of his pass attempts for 4321 yards with 38 passing touchdowns and seven interceptions. He was also the team-leading rusher with 184 carries for 698 yards and seven rushing touchdowns. In comparison, every statistical category trended in the wrong direction for Maye in 2023. His completion percentage dropped to 63.3, completing 269-425 of his past attempts, dropping down to 24 passing touchdowns, and increasing to nine interceptions while being sacked 11 times fewer: 29 in 2023 and 40 in 2022.

In the eyes of Kiper, New England is getting a quarterback who could potentially go down as the best one in his draft class. Before the season, many college football experts had Maye 1A and 1B with Caleb Williams of USC. Maye has all the talent and promise to be an elite-level quarterback at the next level. Now, all that has to be done is ensuring he has the right system with the right weapons around him to prosper.