2024 NFL Draft: Ex-NFL QB explains why he shockingly left Drake Maye out of his top 5 QB prospect rankings

07/03/2024

The quarterbacks who are thought to be the top three in this class did not work out at the NFL Scouting Combine, as Caleb Williams, Drake Maye and the reigning Heisman Trophy winner Jayden Daniels did not take the field with their fellow signal-callers in Indianapolis. Many mock drafts have the three quarterbacks coming off the board first in April, but opinions on the three are wide-ranging.

Some are not sold on Williams being the future franchise quarterback many believe he is, while other analysts have 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 his top quarterback and Daniels behind him at two, but he has Maye at No. 6 behind Bo Nix, Michael Penix Jr. and J.J. McCarthy.

Naturally, these rankings created a stir online, and Simms explained his reasoning on his podcast, “Chris Simms Unbuttoned.”

“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 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 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 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.”

However, Simms does admit that Maye has legitimate potential.

“I think there’s potential here. That’s where it’s tough,” he said (via Yahoo Sports). “There are some things where I go, ‘Yes,’ but I don’t think it’s anywhere near right around the corner. This would be like, ‘Hey, he needs to sit on the bench a little bit and needs to work on some real mechanical issues that he has.’ Going through reads, 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 go through it and do it quicker. In the pocket, he’s the worst in the pocket. The worst.”

Maye was the only FBS player to record 7,000+ passing yards and 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-year span in UNC history. Those 9,706 total yards are the third-most in a two-year span 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 draft coverage, you can hear in-depth analysis twice a week on “With the First Pick” — 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!

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