It’s perceived to be a two-horse race between USC quarterback Caleb Williams and North Carolina’s Drake Maye to be the No. 1 overall pick in the 2024 NFL Draft. They’re viewed head and shoulders above all the other prospects in a class loaded with talent.
Due to the Trojans’ struggles this season — read: their inability to stop a nosebleed on defense — and Williams’ resultant hero ball approach to every possession, Maye has closed the gap.
Although Williams is still the big favorite to hear his name called first on draft night, there’s no telling what could happen if Maye keeps making throws like this, right!?
I mean…40+ yards in the air, fading away from pressure, off your back foot, hitting a pass-catcher more or less in stride? Pretty impressive. Entering Saturday, Maye had hit on 36 of 70 attempts of 20+ yards on the year, which is damn good. Anything at 50% or above is rather exceptional.
As for Caleb Williams? What’s it that the kids say these days? Oh right.
“Hold my beer.”
I KNOW. Williams got to run forward into his throw, but can we appreciate just how stupid this is? The ball is snapped on the right hash.
To evade pressure, Williams steps up in the pocket, chucks it about 45-ish air yards to the opposite side of the field — with an insane amount of touch to boot — and his his receiver perfectly in stride.
Get. The f*ck. Outta here.
We’ve seen some seriously high-level quarterbacking from legit contenders such as Washington’s Michael Penix Jr. and Bo Nix of Oregon. Neither Williams nor Maye are close to the national championship picture. They’re on worse teams. And yet, they’re still consistently putting out some of the most impressive highlights of anyone in the country.
Good analogy for Williams here, by the way:
Nowadays, I kind of like it when a can’t-miss QB prospect faces serious adversity in college. Both Maye and Williams are being confronted with that for the first time in 2023. It’s a bummer for them in the short term. I think it’ll benefit them in the NFL long-term.
It’s interesting, though, how you’d be laughed at for lumping LSU’s Jayden Daniels in the same sentence as Williams or Maye in terms of his NFL Draft aspirations.
The current draftnik consensus is that it goes Williams/Maye in whatever order, then a gap between them and Nix/Penix, followed by fringe first-rounders like NIL multimillionaire Shedeur Sanders and the absolutely Heisman-worthy Daniels.
Not to get too tangential. It’s just that…it feels like Jayden Daniels will be the next coming of Jalen Hurts. Intangibles off the charts. A phenomenal talent as a rusher who’s rapidly progressed as a passer. Goes overlooked. Slides out of the first round. By Year 3, suddenly he’s a superstar.
Anyway, I already can’t wait for NFL Draft SZN. The Williams-Maye buzz is about to be through the roof.
