Welcome to New England, Drake Maye

After months of speculation and anticipation, the new-look New England Patriots took their first step towards rebuilding their once dynastic franchise into a contender again, and they did it by selecting a player at maybe the most important position in professional sports. Quarterback Drake Maye of North Carolina is your new potential franchise quarterback, and that is exciting for a fanbase that isn’t used to being in the situation they were in this past season. 

Since January the names that we kept hearing were Jayden Daniels, Drake Maye, and also J.J. McCarthy towards the end of the process, and the thought was they would draft one of these three and be good to go. Well, that has come to fruition and now the Patriots have made their most important draft pick since 1993 when Drew Bledsoe was selected as the top pick out of Washington State. 

Maye, 21, who stands at 6’4 and weighs 230 pounds, hails from North Carolina. He attended Myers Park High School, where he was a standout athlete, excelling not only on the football field but also on the basketball court. In his two seasons on the gridiron for Myers Park, Maye compiled a 25-3 record over two seasons while throwing for 6,713 yards and 86 touchdowns. Maye was also a three-year basketball starter, averaging 16 points and 11 rebounds a game as a junior. 

Maye is a good basketball player but far from the only athlete in his family. His dad, Mark, was a football player for the Tarheels from 1983 to 1988. His brothers are all Division I athletes, too. Eldest Luke Maye was a forward for North Carolina basketball and now plays professionally in Japan. Brother Beau currently plays for the Tarheels, and last but not least, Cole Maye, who won in NCAA with Florida State baseball. The two games get heated when this quartet is together. 

Maye spent three years at Chapel Hill as the quarterback of the Tar Heels, completing 618 of 952 passes for 8,018 yards, 63 touchdowns, and 16 interceptions. Maye is also good with his feet, running 302 times for 1,209 and 16 touchdowns. Maye’s athletic ability allows him to escape pressure and fight through tackles that most quarterbacks would succumb to, but he also takes too many chances and will need to find that balance with the Patriots. Maye went 17-10 as the starter in Chapel Hill, lifting teams that had a tremendous amount of holes to winning records in both ‘22 and ‘23. Maye will wear number 10, the same number he wore in high school and college.