FOXBORO, Mass. — Eliot Wolf didn’t wait. It didn’t matter that he still had plenty of time on the clock, crucial minutes to potentially field trade offers from a slew of desperate teams with similar feelings about Drake Maye. With time to spare, the New England Patriots sent their pick to the league.
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They wanted Maye.
A few weeks ago, the Patriots, like the rest of the league, learned that the Washington Commanders planned on taking Jayden Daniels with the second pick. Shortly after that, the new leadership team in charge of jump-starting a rebuild came to an agreement.
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Maye was going to be the team’s pick at No. 3. The new regime had decided on the franchise’s most important player, the player most highly drafted by the Patriots since Drew Bledsoe in 1993.
How Maye fares will go a long way toward determining how the team fares in the post-Bill Belichick era and how Wolf and coach Jerod Mayo are viewed. The stakes are massive. But Thursday night, they felt they landed the kind of quarterback who can change the franchise.
“I know a lot of people are writing us off,” Mayo said, “but we’ll see when it comes to the fall.”
Here’s a look at the three-month process that led the Patriots to Maye.
Can't wait, @DrakeMaye2! pic.twitter.com/YVaGlEiUNz
— New England Patriots (@Patriots) April 26, 2024
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The Patriots’ decision-makers brought Maye into a small conference room during the NFL Scouting Combine in Indianapolis for a brief interview. Those sessions usually go similarly for most teams. Introductions turn into stories. Players are quizzed on a whiteboard and asked to explain some of their highlights from the past season.
But the Pats wanted to do something a little different with Maye. They know playing in a big-market, sports-obsessed region like New England comes with its own challenges if the player isn’t ready to handle it.
So on the monitor at the front of the room, the Patriots played some of Maye’s worst plays from the season. After a stellar freshman season at North Carolina, Maye’s production dropped off as a redshirt sophomore. There wasn’t as much talent around him, and Maye started playing a bit more recklessly as a result. On other plays, breakdowns from teammates led to poor results. So they showed those plays to Maye and asked about them.
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“He took a lot of that blame on himself even when sometimes it wasn’t his fault,” Mayo said of Maye’s answers.
A few weeks later, Mayo sat in the lobby of the Ritz-Carlton in Orlando, Fla., excited for what was going to come. It was late after a long day at the league meetings, but Mayo was excited. Early the next day, he was leaving for his first circuit of pro days. He went first to see Daniels in Baton Rouge, La. The day after that was a visit to see Maye in Chapel Hill, N.C.
Mayo learned under Belichick in recent years and saw how much he valued talking to college coaches at pro days. So at North Carolina, Mayo introduced himself to Tar Heels coach Mack Brown. He wanted a better idea of who Maye is as a person.
“(That) really helped me get the full picture,” Mayo said. “Look, this guy is very competitive. He would literally miss one question and he’ll be on himself about it, but we like that competitive nature, that striving for perfection, and he showed us that.”
By then, the Patriots liked what Maye offered. He has prototypical size, standing nearly 6 feet 5 and weighing 223 pounds. They love his strong arm. They were impressed by his mobility, both scrambling for first downs (he ran for 42 first downs on third and fourth downs the last two years) and throwing on the move.
But they wanted to know more about how he’d handle being dropped into this situation with the Patriots. The new regime is realistic. They know the wide receiver corps isn’t great and that the offensive line has some major questions.
They saw similarities in what Maye dealt with as a sophomore at UNC. After his freshman year, his top two wide receivers went to the NFL along with his best offensive lineman. Both units got worse. His best receiver last fall missed a third of the season. They wanted to know more about how he handled a tough situation, considering he might face a similar one in New England.
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So Wolf watched all of his news conferences. The Patriots’ de facto general manager noted that Maye, unlike some of the other top collegiate quarterbacks, met with the media after every game, win or loss, and said all the right things.
“Not that the Chapel Hill media is as tough as (the Boston media), but he handled it with grace, with class,” Wolf said. “Watching those press conferences, there were a lot of times where the reporters were trying to get him to throw somebody under the bus and he wouldn’t do it. He’s a 21-year-old kid, but he’s very mature and understands what it means to be a leader.”
During Maye’s freshman year at North Carolina, the school held a recruiting event. There were games for the prospective student-athletes to play and chances for them to talk to current players.
But early that night, Maye spotted a ping-pong table. He started playing with Sam Howell, the starting quarterback when Maye redshirted who is now with the Seattle Seahawks. A best-of-three series turned into a best-of-five. Then a best-of-seven. Whenever Maye lost, he demanded a rematch.
“We finally had to kick them out because they just wouldn’t get off the table,” said Phil Longo, Maye’s first offensive coordinator at UNC.
Longo worked with Maye to try to quiet his feet in the pocket. Maye is not a perfect prospect, scouts and coaches will acknowledge. There’s work that needs to be done. But that competitiveness was one of the top things the new Patriots regime was looking for in a quarterback.
“If I told Drake, ‘Hey, I’m going to get to the doorknob and get out of the room before you,’ he would probably knock me over, leap over the table and do whatever he had to do just to win,” Longo said.
Mayo stressed at several points this offseason that he wanted toughness from a quarterback. He played with Tom Brady and marveled at how he’d pop back up after massive hits without seeming like it hurt. He sees that same trait in Joe Burrow. When Mayo watched Maye’s tape from last season, he saw the same thing.
“One thing about Drake … (North Carolina) also had some holes on offense, and the thing that most impressed me about him (was that) he would get smashed and just get right back up,” Mayo said. “That was that aha moment for me.”
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Despite the excitement of picking Maye, the Patriots were quick to say they aren’t anointing the kid. He’s 21. He needs time to develop. They like veteran Jacoby Brissett, both as a mentor and as someone who can run the offense while Maye learns.
“I don’t think many rookies are ready to just jump in and play,” Mayo said. “At the end of the day, our philosophy is the best players will play. Coming in as a rookie, hopefully he’s a sponge.”
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The Patriots didn’t draft Maye because of what he can be today, but because of what they think he can be in a few years. He has things to work on. But they are, as Wolf said, “betting on the talent and the kid.”
That talent is what sticks out. The bad plays last season were reckless. But the good ones were reminiscent of some of the best prospects.
“I’m certainly not going to say that he’s Patrick Mahomes, but he’s very Patrick Mahomes-esque in that he can extend plays, he’s very accurate throwing off platform, he can contort his body in a lot of different ways,” Longo said.
That’s why the Patriots were so excited Thursday. They view Maye as a great fit for the offense Alex Van Pelt plans to run leaning on play-action rollouts and over-the-middle throws.
A three-month process brought them from the combine to pro days across the country, hoping to find the right quarterback for the next chapter of this organization.
This is a new regime with a new outlook and a new time frame. The success they envision might take a few years to pull off. But Thursday night, they felt they got the guy that can help turn things around.
Maye is an enthusiastic, high-energy guy. He beamed as he wore his new Patriots hat at the draft in Detroit. He acknowledged the dynasty he’s now tasked with reviving and the massive shadow cast on the position in these parts by Tom Brady. He didn’t run from any of it.
Then he thanked the front office and coaching staff that picked him, that spurned trade offers because there was enough conviction he can be special.
“I promise,” Maye said, “you won’t regret it.”
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(Top photo: Kirby Lee / USA Today)
