First draft post-Belichick draws questions
Maye’s ex-coaches have kind words
In the two weeks since the nFL draft, plenty has been written about patriots first-round quarterback Drake Maye. We know he’s the youngest of four boys who all played college sports. We know he has all the physical tools to be a great quarterback, but his footwork and mechanics may need a lot of work.
But the patriots drafted seven other players. Let’s take a deeper look at the rest of the patriots’ draft class, including some analysis that isn’t overly kind:
With Eliot Wolf and Jerod Mayo replacing Bill Belichick, it was supposed to mark the end of the patriots making strange draft picks, as Belichick became infamous for reaching for players such as Cole Strange and Jordan Richards. At the nFL combine in February, Wolf said the patriots were switching to the grading system Wolf learned in green Bay in part because “it accounts value better.”
except Wolf ’s first draft wasn’t too different from those of his predecessor. the patriots’ second- and third-round picks, receiver Ja’Lynn Polk and offensive tackle Caedan Wallace, were considered by some analysts as among the most over-drafted players in 2024.
of course, there’s a big caveat to acknowledge with any draft analysis — no one has any idea which players will succeed, up to and including the no. 1 overall pick. But it is certainly fair to analyze how each team rated the prospects and worked the board in relation to the other 31 teams.
using a “consensus big board” model that gathers player grades from dozens of mock drafts, sharp Football Analysis ranked the patriots’ draft 29th out of 32, with polk the fifth-most overdrafted player in round 2, and Wallace the most over-drafted player in round 3.
Rsharp pointed out that the patriots “once again reached for offensive linemen, much like they did in 2023.” Last year, the patriots supposedly over-drafted Atonio Mafi, Sidy Sow, and Jake Andrews, per consensus big boards, and this year it was Wallace and fourthround guard Layden Robinson.
the site nFL draft scout, which is partnered with the pro Football Hall of Fame, gave the patriots a d-plus and ranked their draft 28th out of 32. interestingly, nds had maye rated as the no. 1 prospect, ahead of Caleb Williams
and Jayden Daniels.
Wallace was nFL draft scout’s leastfavorite pick of the draft, as he was picked no. 68 and it ranked him the no. 313 prospect. that disparity of 245 picks was the largest in the draft for nds. the site also didn’t like the patriots taking polk at no. 37, rating him at no. 71.
But other draftniks weren’t so harsh on Wallace. nFL.com’s Lance Zierlein and the Athletic’s Dane Brugler had him projected as a fourth-round pick, though neither considered him a left tackle.
some intel on polk, listed at 6 feet 1 inch and 203 pounds: “i like him. mature and tough, hard worker, sets a high standard for himself,” one AFc executive said. “carried himself like a pro as a college player. Very coachable and smart. can handle multiple positions, smooth route runner, and has enough speed to win many one-on-one matchups. He will be a good pro.”
polk only ran a 4.52 at the combine, but he averaged 16.9 and 16.8 yards per catch the last two years at Washington, with 15 touchdowns. “i think he’s a very dependable guy — good hands, ran good routes,” one nFL head coach told me. “He’s not a burner or anything like that, but i think he’s got good savviness. i think he can play inside and outside, wherever you need him to play. A lot of flexibility in what he can do for you. He’s going to be a sturdy, dependable wideout.”
Wallace played 99.8 percent of his snaps at right tackle at penn state, yet the patriots are going to try to make him a left tackle. “i thought they might
RRtrade up for a different offensive tackle who was more of a pure left tackle,” the AFc executive said. “Above-average size and athleticism, but not great. i see him as more of a potential starter than a definite starter. i think he’ll eventually start somewhere, maybe even at guard. But he’s a total projection at left tackle.”
i asked the head coach how hard it is to project a prospect to switch sides, and he said it varies by player.
“probably not as big [of a challenge] as you think,” he said. “most of these guys are all athletic enough now and have some ability to be able to do it.”
the most fascinating day 3 pick was sixth-round quarterback Joe Milton, listed at 6-5 and 246 pounds with the ability to throw the ball 80 yards. Wolf said this past week on Adam Schefter’s podcast that he arrived early to last fall’s tennessee-Vanderbilt game to watch milton warm up.
“Just watching him throw the football is unbelievable,” Wolf said. “We feel there’s some things we can work with and develop. it was just one of those picks where there was too much talent in him to pass that up.”
the AFc executive called milton a “developmental backup” and called it an “interesting decision” by the patriots to draft two project quarterbacks. “milton needs significant technical coaching, and so does maye,” he said. “they need a plan to get [milton] coaching while not taking away from maye’s development.”
the AFc executive’s take on the patriots’ other day 3 picks: robinson is “big, thick, powerful,” and an “oldschool power blocker who is not ideal in space.” Fourth-round receiver Javon Baker is “strong” with “good size and hands” but “not explosively fast.” sixthround cornerback Marcellas Dial is an outside press cornerback who is “fast enough but a little tight-hipped. Will allow some separation versus a quickbreaking route-runner.” And seventhround tight end Jaheim Bell is a classic tweener — “small for a tight end, slow for a receiver” — but “athletic” and “a potential mismatch receiver versus a linebacker.”
RRA few off-field notes on Drake Maye from his coaches at north carolina:
Head coach Mack Brown raved about maye’s character, particularly his commitment. “We lost a coordinator a year ago after [maye’s] first year, and he comes into my office, and everybody’s trying to pay him a lot of money,”
Brown said. “Believe me, he was tampered with at the highest level, and he didn’t even consider any of that. He said, ‘i’m a north carolina guy, i’m staying here, so don’t even worry about it. coach, it’s not about money with me.’ ”
Brown highlighted how maye and his predecessor, seahawks quarterback Sam Howell, made sure that their teammates got a piece of the niL pie.
“drake would not take any opportunities with niL without including other players,” Brown said. “so if they came and said, ‘We want you to do this advertisement,’ he said, ‘Well, the offensive linemen need to be with me, and they need to be paid.’ ‘Well, we want you to get fed through the seafood company for the year.’ And he said, ‘that’s great. the receivers and their families need to get fed, too.’ so that’s just who he is.”
unc offensive analyst Clyde Christensen, a longtime quarterbacks coach who worked with Peyton Manning and Andrew Luck in indianapolis, and Tom Brady in tampa, said maye liked to pick his brain.
“in college, you eat your pregame meal together, and so all the quarterbacks sit together, and i always was impressed that every dinner we would sit there and we’d eat and then toward the end of it, he’d always have two wellthought-out questions,” christensen said. “‘Hey, tell me what tom Brady’s routine on the night before game was.’ ‘Hey, tell me how peyton handled coverzero in high pressure.’ His mind was always working to learn, and so that was always impressive to me.”
RRRWith Caleb Williams being selected with the top selection, the University of Southern California can now boast that it has
with six. Williams has quite the torch to carry, as four of his five predecessors were Pro Bowl players, including two Hall of Famers. take 30 nFL players and put them in the nBA.”
J.J. Watt, James Jones, Christian Barmore,
ASSOCIATED PRESS be low. nFL teams would raid nBA rosters if they could.
the nFL played a 16-game season for 43 years (1978-2020) before adding a 17th game in 2021. But the nFL doesn’t seem like it wants to stay with 17 for long, because the possibility of adding an 18th game has been coming up a lot lately.
At the combine, Browns general manager Andrew Berry said that a rule proposal to move the trade deadline from Week 8 to 10 was done with an 18-game schedule in mind (the nFL ultimately moved it to Week 9).
At the draft, commissioner Roger Goodell told pat mcAfee’s show that “we’re good at 17 now, but listen, we’re looking at how we continue. i’d rather replace a preseason game with a regular-season any day . . . so if we got to 18 and two [preseason games], that’s not an unreasonable thing.”
new nFL players Association president Jalen Reeves-Maybin of the Lions didn’t dismiss the 18-game schedule out of hand when he said, “When that time comes, we’ll address that.” Another nFLpA representative recently told the Washington post that they expect the owners to propose an 18-game schedule in the next 12-18 months.
Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow said it would have to come with a second bye week.
“maybe you could do something like, the first bye is kind of how we have it now, and the second bye everybody has it at once, and you make it like the pro Bowl week, like an All-star break for the nBA,” Burrow said.
the nFL may not be totally against two byes per team because it could push the super Bowl back to presidents’ day weekend. But the tV networks hated two byes the one season the nFL tried it (1993), citing too many disruptions in the weekly schedule. And Burrow’s other suggestion will be a nonstarter, as a week without games is a week without revenue.
Extra points
Rashee Rice had a fine rookie season, but perhaps we’re starting to see why he lasted until the 55th pick in last year’s draft. He’s already facing eight counts including aggravated assault after injuring seven people in a dallas highway drag race crash in which he was allegedly driving 119 miles per hour. then this past week, rice found himself in another incident, this time investigated by dallas police for allegedly assaulting a photographer in a nightclub. Luckily for rice, he plays for the chiefs, who usually have a high tolerance for talented players (and coaches’ sons) with off-field issues. But the chiefs signed Marquise Brown and drafted Xavier Worthy in the first round this year, so rice had better tread carefully . . . the schedule is expected to be released this coming week, and teams shouldn’t be too upset if the nFL neglects them in the national tV schedule. the last two years, some of the league’s biggest surprises have been teams with almost no national exposure. Last year, the texans finished 10-7 and won the AFc south after playing each of their first 16 games in the sunday 1 p.m. window. in 2022, the Lions went 9-8 despite not playing an afternoon or night game until Week 18. Also in 2022, the Jaguars won the AFc south at 9-8 despite playing just one national tV game all season . . . southern california is going to be a mecca for nFL training camps this August, with five teams practicing within a 100-mile radius. the rams are moving into new digs in Woodland Hills, and the chargers into their new practice facility in el segundo. the cowboys will hold their annual camp in oxnard, the saints are holding camp in irvine because of renovations back home in new orleans, and the raiders will beat the Vegas heat by holding camp in costa mesa. Because of nFL territorial rights, the raiders and saints will only be able to host season ticket-holders and sponsors at their camps, not the general public. the cowboys get grandfathered in because Jerry Jones gets what he wants . . . the chiefs took Holy cross offensive lineman C.J. Hansom with the 248th pick in the seventh round, making him the crusaders’ first nFL draft pick since 1989 — a year that has become important for a certain subset of chiefs fans
. . . Lions rookie cornerback Terrion Arnold, drafted 24th, said this past week the raiders told him that their no. 13 pick came down to a coin flip between him and tight end Brock Bowers. responded raiders gm Tom Telesco: “typically, i use a magic 8 Ball and not a coin.”