After much speculation of what the Patriots would do with the No. 3 overall pick – would they trade it? Stay and pick J.J. McCarthy? Stay and take Drake Maye? – they landed on that last option, taking the North Carolina product to be their next QB. Maye’s stock once rivaled that of Caleb Williams, but he fell into the next tier alongside McCarthy and Jayden Daniels over the past year. Regardless, New England believes Maye can be their QB of the future and invested the draft capital to crown him as such. Let’s dig into the fantasy implications.
DRAKE MAYE
Projection: 246.2 completions on 386.6 attempts for 2,664.2 yards, 14.1 TDs, and 10.8 interceptions. 58.2 carries for 232.7 yards and 1.4 TDs.
- For a while, it seemed like Caleb Williams and Maye were the clear top-two options in this class, with some speculation last summer (likely just clickbait) that Maye could even surpass Williams as the QB1. That obviously didn’t come to fruition and Maye ended up closer to Jayden Daniels and J.J. McCarthy than Williams in the eyes of the NFL. Still, the North Carolina product is clearly an elite prospect, tossing 62 touchdowns to just 16 interceptions over his final two years in the Tar Heel State (he sat behind future NFLer Sam Howell as a freshman). Maye is still only 21 years old, led the class in PFF’s big time throw metric at 8.1%, and avoided sacks much better than both Williams and Daniels. Scouts say he has among the best measurables and flashes in the class and could be a high-level NFL QB if he can sort out his inconsistencies. Maye is also a severely underrated rusher, as he led UNC with 698 rushing yards as a sophomore before posting a very strong 449 mark in 2023. He went pseudo-viral for throwing a touchdown with his left hand against Pitt last season. Overall, Maye isn’t as much of a lock as Williams and Daniels to start all 17 games, but he will be a starter as a rookie and remains fantasy-relevant as a result.
- New England has Jacoby Brissett if they don’t want to thrust the young QB into the spotlight right away. Brissett has started games for NE before and proven himself as a reliable albeit low-ceiling veteran. Given Maye’s reputation as inconsistent, there’s a solid chance he doesn’t start in Week 1.
- To put it lightly, this is a suboptimal situation for a rookie QB. Kendrick Bourne is WR1 on the depth chart and the roster is littered with JAG pass-catchers.
- We are projecting 12 games for Maye, but that is subject to change.
PATRIOTS PASS-CATCHERS
- It’s going to be hard for any New England pass-catchers to be relevant in Maye’s rookie year. Bourne has flashed fairly decent target-earning ability in the past and Demario Douglas had six games with at least a 20% share as a rookie, but the ineffectiveness of this offense as a whole and Douglas’ role as a smaller underneath WR caps his upside. The Patriots could also look to add a WR later in the draft to eventually grow into a starting role.
- Rhamondre Stevenson and Antonio Gibson are an interesting running back duo considering both are strong pass-catchers; with the state of the Patriots’ WR group, both will need to be involved regardless of who’s under center. Gibson hasn’t quite reached the electric expectations fantasy gamers have bestowed upon him and that’s unlikely to change in NE, but he remains a somewhat interesting piece regardless because of his receiving skill-set. Stevenson has remarked in the past that he prefers not carrying the entire load, but he should still be the RB1 and involved on all three downs.
- Hunter Henry has flirted with a low-teens target share over the past two seasons and likely stays in that range. Going from Jonnu Smith to Austin Hooper should make minimal difference, and Henry remains the unchallenged TE1.
