The quarterbacks believed to be the top three in this class did not work out at the NFL Scouting Combine, as Caleb Williams, Drake Maye and reigning Heisman Trophy winner Jayden Daniels did not take the field with their fellow flaggers in Indianapolis. . Many mock drafts have all three quarterbacks coming off the board first in April, but opinions on all three are widely varied.
Some aren’t convinced Williams is the franchise’s future quarterback, many believe he is, while other analysts view Daniels as the No. 2 QB over Maye — or vice versa. Then there are others who have shocking QB power rankings — like those of former NFL quarterback Chris Simms, who now works as an analyst for NBC Sports.
Simms has Williams as the top quarterback and Daniels behind him at two, but he has Maye at No. 6 behind Bo Nix, Michael Penix Jr. and JJ McCarthy.
Naturally, these rankings caused a stir online, and Simms explained his reasoning on his podcast “Chris Simms Unbuttoned.”
“There are things you look at and you say, ‘Wow.’ If you look at the highlights package, you go, “Woah.” You look at the highlights package, and you go, “Wow, he looks the part, he’s the prototypical size and kind of has the look of “A franchise quarterback,” Simms said of Maye, who is ranked as the No. 3 QB (and No. 6 overall prospect) in CBS Sports’ consensus prospect rankings.
“You watch the best games of his career, and yeah, you’ll see some of those (big) throws, but for every one of those throws, there’s five, like, what’s that throw? He doesn’t There’s no way The evaluators, the coaches are going to be able to get behind Drake Maye and say, ‘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 in his game that need to be tweaked, improved.”
However, Simms admits Maye has legitimate potential.
“I think there’s potential here. That’s where it’s difficult,” he said (via Yahoo Sports). “There are some things that I say ‘Yes’ to, but I don’t think it’s around the corner. It would be like, ‘Hey, he needs to sit on the bench a little bit and needs to work above.’ he has real mechanical issues. Going through the readings, I don’t think he’s in the same class as the guys we talked about, and I mean all of them. I think they all do it and do it more quickly. In the pocket, it’s the worst in the pocket. The worst.”
Maye was the only FBS player to record over 7,000 passing yards and over 1,000 rushing yards over the past two seasons, and was the 2022 ACC Player of the Year. He recorded the most passing yards (7,929) and total yards (9,076) in two years in UNC history. Those 9,706 total yards are the third-most in two years in ACC history behind Deshaun Watson in 2015-16 and Lamar Jackson in 2016-17.
No UNC player has ever been drafted No. 1 overall in the common draft era, but Maye is the favorite to be selected second overall, according to Caesars Sportsbook (-130).
For more coverage of the project, you can hear in-depth analysis twice a week on “With the first choice” — our year-round NFL Draft podcast with NFL Draft analyst Ryan Wilson and former Vikings general manager Rick Spielman. You can find “With the First Pick” wherever you get your podcasts: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, etc. Listen to the latest episode below!