Chris Simms: Drake Maye ‘proved me wrong’ after harsh pre-draft evaluation
"Yeah, looks like I was wrong about that evaluation."
Drake Maye was widely considered to be a top-five pick entering the 2024 NFL Draft.
However, NBC analyst and former QB Chris Simms was not too impressed with the UNC product in the months leading up to the draft.
While every young QB prospect has his fair share of flaws and mechanical issues that have to be addressed at the next level, Simms believed that Maye’s shortcomings were so severe that he tabbed him as the sixth-best QB in his draft class — placing him three tiers below eventual No. 1 pick Caleb Williams.
Williams and LSU’s Jayden Daniels (the No. 2 pick in the 2024 Draft) each had their own tiers in Simms’ rankings, while Oregon’s Bo Nix, Washington’s Michael Penix Jr., and Michigan’s J.J. McCarthy were in the third tier as “franchise starting” QBs.
“There’s things you watch, and you go, ‘Wow.’ If you watch the highlight package, you go, ‘Woah.’ You watch the highlight package and you go, wow, he looks the part, he’s got the prototypical size, and kinda has the look of a franchise quarterback,” Simms said of Maye on his “Unbuttoned” Podcast in March, adding. … You watch the best games in his career, and yeah, you’ll see a few of those (great) throws, but for every one of those throws, there’s five of, like, what the hell is that throw?
“There’s no way evaluators, coaches are going to be able to get behind, like, right now, Drake Maye and go ‘Oh yeah, he’s ready to go, he should be the No. 2 or No. 3 pick in the draft.’ No way! There are too many things about his game that need to be polished, better, improved.”
Even if the 21-year-old Maye was viewed as more of a raw prospect than an older QB like Daniels, it didn’t take very long for Maye to validate his standing as the No. 3 pick this past season.
Given Maye’s promising returns, Simms was willing to eat crow this week when asked on Tom E. Curran’s “Patriots Talk” Podcast about his pre-draft comments about the Patriots QB.
“Listen, I told you my concerns with him in the draft,” Simms told Curran. “He was not my favorite. He definitely fixed some of the things I was worried about, and he proved me wrong.”
The early returns of the ‘24 Draft class have been encouraging, with both Daniels and Nix leading the Commanders and Broncos to the playoffs.
But Maye was one of the few bright spots on a miserable Patriots roster in 2024, earning an alternate Pro Bowl nod after accruing 2,697 total yards and 17 total touchdowns over 13 games.
Even with some of the expected growing pains at the NFL level when it comes to turnovers and avoiding contact, Maye has quieted several critics when it comes to concerns over processing plays and his mechanics.
“If you went to his Pro Day at North Carolina, I would’ve gone, ‘You don’t draft this person in the first round,’” Simms said of Maye, adding: “Drastically (improved). All the moving parts you’re talking about all got fine-tuned. The motion got tighter and quicker. The legs and the feet were in the right spot.
“We knew he has physical ability, but now there was the ability of doing it consistently. Damn, I mean, the athleticism, When he opens up and runs, he’s one of the faster quarterbacks — other than Lamar [Jackson] and maybe a few other guys, he’s as fast as any quarterback in football. … “Was really impressed with the way he played throughout the year. Especially with all the big throws down the field. Yeah, looks like I was wrong about that evaluation.”
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