The excellence between NFL followers, and soccer followers, isn’t extra obvious than with draft hype. Annually, specialists laud some schmuck quarterback whose archetype suits their system as a franchise savior, and NFL followers inhale the evaluation so usually, so blindly that they actually imagine Drake Maye is a greater prospect than Caleb Williams.
The North Carolina quarterback doesn’t have a Heisman, by no means gained 10 video games, and solely has one win in opposition to a top-25 group. The win in query got here in opposition to this yr’s 6-7 Miami group earlier than their annual regression to obscurity. Whereas Maye served simply two years because the Tar Heels’ starter, he couldn’t beat a down Clemson program, or a bottom-feeding Georgia Tech college.
The perfect group within the ACC this season, Florida State, wasn’t even on UNC’s schedule the previous two years, but Maye and Mack Brown nonetheless did not win 10 video games in both of his two campaigns beneath middle. Take into consideration that for a second. The Seminoles went undefeated, and the choice committee handled FSU as in the event that they ran the desk within the AAC.
That’s the extent of competitors Maye confronted throughout his faculty profession, however, yeah, ignore all that as a result of he’s 6-foot-5 and comes from a household of athletes. Final time I checked Chris Simms appeared like an NFL quarterback and nonetheless blew chunks when he reached the league.
The one legacy Maye will proceed is that of idiotic scouts speaking much more idiotic entrance places of work into drafting a man purely on spec. From Trey Lance to Daniel Jones, Mitch Trubisky, and Paxton Lynch, there’s no scarcity of first-round quarterbacks that manifest into busts just because a scout offered his normal supervisor a invoice of products.
Perhaps as an alternative of pleasuring your self to that 20-yard out route, rewatch the UNC-NC State video games from the previous two years when Drake the Nice went a mixed 51-of-89 for 487 yards, three TDs, three picks, and two losses. The Wolfpack possessed the ACC’s second- and third-stingiest protection in 2022 and 2023, respectively, so try these if you wish to see how he fared in opposition to high quality competitors.
North Carolina spent half the season on the CW, so I doubt only a few, if any, of those NFL followers watched Maye with regularity. In the event that they did, they’d see a man who seems freaking superb when issues are going effectively, however can’t discover his ass, or a receiver, when the playing cards go chilly.
On the opposite aspect of the coin, Williams confronted a stacked deck all yr at USC, with a protection as depressing as North Carolina’s, with out Jordan Addison, in opposition to far higher competitors, and nonetheless, the Trojans have been No. 3 within the nation in scoring. Ditto for 2022 when the Lincoln Riley product lifted the Heisman.
I do know Williams put some flaws on tape this yr, however he was compelled to freelance because of the sieve-like nature of the USC protection. If it’s a toss-up, I’d quite have a QB who tried to do an excessive amount of — and succeeded at a fee much better than most — than the opposite man.
Sure, Williams will be taught rapidly that accidents pile up when he goes full Superman on the subsequent degree. Nonetheless, his instincts for off-schedule playmaking are a number of the greatest I’ve ever witnessed on a university soccer subject.
What’s Drake Maye’s profession spotlight? One quarterback was on the market operating round like Patrick Mahomes Lite, whereas the opposite misplaced to 3-9 Virginia whereas solely doing sufficient to protect his draft inventory. Severely, what are we doing? The draft evaluation is simply starting, and I already wish to puncture my eardrums with a ballpoint pen.
