Why Patriots Were Right To Draft Drake Maye, Not Trade Down

There was much debate in the weeks leading up to the 2024 NFL Draft regarding whether the Patriots should trade the third overall pick, but they made the right decision Thursday.

New England rebuffed multiple last-minute offers from other teams and drafted Drake Maye with the No. 3 pick. De facto general manager Eliot Wolf and head coach Jerod Mayo believe the North Carolina product is an elevator of talent but also weren’t willing to outright name him the No. 1 quarterback.

Evaluators like former Patriots head coach Bill Belichick pointed out the flaws in the 21-year-old’s game and were hesitant to compare him to Josh Allen. Fans were mixed on the pick, but the negative reception largely was because of the other flaws on the Patriots’ roster. Those responsibilities are on Wolf and Mayo, who acknowledged there will need to be work done in the rest of the draft.

But this was the right approach for the Patriots. The team is nowhere near competing for a Super Bowl, so they have time to rebuild and retool the roster. Maye believes in the talent on the team, and it has a chance to get better if Wolf and his staff pinpoint the right needs for the organization.

For the trade-down folks, the way the 2024 NFL Draft played out showed why staying at No. 3 and picking Maye was the right choice. This definitely is hindsight analysis, but chaos was the headline after Thursday night.

The first 14 picks of the draft were offensive players, and six quarterbacks were selected in the first 12 picks. New England reportedly held a pre-draft visit with Michael Penix Jr. as insurance for a trade-down scenario. The Atlanta Falcons had other ideas when they picked the Washington product eighth overall. Bo Nix was then taken 12th overall by the Denver Broncos, which was a reach by multiple analysts’ standards.

J.J. McCarthy’s hype proved to be a smokescreen. He didn’t go top four nor did the New York Giants give up on Daniel Jones to take the Michigan product. The Minnesota Vikings got their guy by only trading up one spot with the New York Jets.

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It might have been movement way too far on one side, but the NFL told the world how important the quarterback position is. There is just so much value in having a franchise quarterback than above-average players who lift up a signal-caller. Would the Patriots be a more rounded team with Jacoby Brissett along with weapons like Brian Thomas Jr. and a solid offensive tackle? Sure, but we’ve seen how limited a ceiling a Brissett-led team brings.

The goal is to win Super Bowls, and you do that with high-end talent starting at the quarterback position. Is Maye that guy? Who knows? But he has the tools to be a franchise quarterback, and that’s tough to pass up just to be a few games over .500.

Opinions between Maye and McCarthy vary, but top draft analysts like Mel Kiper Jr. and Daniel Jeremiah had Maye higher on their boards than McCarthy. New England on paper got the better signal-caller, and it doesn’t seem like other teams offered a good enough deal to move out of No. 3. The Patriots might have been asking for too much, but a top-three pick is a premium spot and you better have a good reason to move out of it.

Again, hindsight is 20/20 and confirmation bias is a slippery slope to dive into. But the way the 2024 NFL Draft played out showed why the Patriots taking Maye was the correct choice.