Despite rumors of a potential trade out of the No. 3 pick, the New England Patriots decided to make Drake Maye their franchise quarterback by making him a top-five pick in the 2024 NFL Draft.
After adding a host of pass-catching playmakers to give this passing offense some badly needed talent on the perimeter, what can dynasty fantasy football managers expect from Maye in his rookie season?
Should You Draft Drake Maye in Dynasty Fantasy Football?
Every year, a quarterback prospect with all of the physical tools and a prototypical build that translates enters the league. In the 2024 NFL Draft, this QB was Maye.
If you turn on the highlight reel of Maye’s greatest hits on YouTube, you’ll quickly see why he is such an exciting prospect. His size, speed, arm strength, flashes of pre-snap processing, eye manipulation, anticipation, and off-script creation all give him the floor of a player like Justin Herbert.
Yet, his lack of refinement in throwing mechanics, inconsistent accuracy, and moments of playing a bit late when going through his progressions give him the floor of a player like Jake Locker.
Of all the landing spots for the top quarterback prospects, the Pats were the team with the projected worst supporting infrastructure entering the 2024 NFL Draft. Fortunately, the team added TE, Jaheim Bell, and WRs Ja’Lynn Polk and Javon Baker shortly after selecting Maye in the first round.
Polk is a great contested-catch player who can be very effective as a possession receiver against zone coverage. Baker has the fluid movement skills, physicality, and wide catch radius to be a great outside receiver — if he can clean up his drops — and the addition of Bell gives New England a great run-after-catch threat at tight end who can create mismatches as a move TE.
It’s worth mentioning that, while Maye isn’t exactly known as an elite dual-threat QB prospect heading into the NFL, his contributions in the running game certainly shouldn’t be overlooked. His rushing production floor projects to be lower than Jayden Daniels‘ and probably slightly lower than Caleb Williams‘, which likely makes him the QB3 on dynasty rookie boards.
In an offensive situation that may be better than expected early on, Maye is a great QB prospect to add to your fantasy roster in the first round of upcoming rookie drafts in Superflex leagues.
Who Is Maye?
Background
Maye has the best prototypical build of any top-tier QB in this class, standing 6’4” and weighing in at around 223 pounds. He spent his prep-playing days at Myers Park High School, where he was touted as a four-star prospect after generating 6,713 yards and 86 touchdowns over two high school seasons.
Maye was also a standout basketball player during his prep days, averaging a double-double on the hardwood as a junior.
College Production
The heir-apparent to Sam Howell in Chapel Hill, N.C., proved he was every bit the prospect of his predecessor, and possibly even better.
Maye earned ACC Player of the Year honors in his first full season under center with 4,321 passing yards and 38 passing touchdowns while adding 698 yards and seven scores on the ground in his redshirt freshman campaign.
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Maye’s production dropped off a bit in his sophomore season without WR Josh Downs to throw to, but he still managed to compile 3,608 passing yards and 33 total TDs to finish out his collegiate career.
Injury History
Maye suffered an ankle injury during his final collegiate game against North Carolina State, which played a part in him not appearing in the Duke’s Mayo Bowl against the West Virginia Mountaineers.
Maye’s Strengths and Weaknesses
Strengths
- High-level arm strength; tape is littered with shots deep down the field with the ball shooting out of his hand with high-end velocity effortlessly; can make any throw at the NFL level.
- When his mechanics are intact, Maye operates with great ball placement and accuracy on all three levels of the football field.
- Plus-level hip torque and arm strength are on display when he breaks the pocket and throws darts on the move, whether rolling to his right or left.
- Quality processor of information; flashed ability to identify alerts and progressions pre-snap to help formulate a post-snap plan to go through progressions.
- Good athlete who extends passing plays and punishes undisciplined defenders who don’t stay in their pass-rushing lanes; good play strength and surprising wiggle and twitchiness as a ball carrier.
READ MORE: Full Scouting Report of Drake Maye
Weaknesses
- Footwork mechanics need to be cleaned up; way too many reps where he’s bouncing around on his toes, which occasionally leads to accuracy issues and affects the timing of route concepts.
- Tends to drift toward his intended target, leading to running himself into trouble instead of operating out of a clean pocket.
- Too many reps where Maye unnecessarily bails from a clean pocket; fails to consistently climb the pocket, slides to buy more time, or resets to continue going through progression.
- Some hesitation and questionable decisions on his tape led to negative plays; lending questions to him being a tick late going through his reads or thrown off because of his footwork being a bit inconsistent.
- Maye’s offensive line definitely had some issues, but pressure did seem to impact him more than you would like it to for a top-tier QB prospect at the college level.