The Drake Maye Tapes: N.C. State (2023)

If you've been following along lately, you've seen that I've been in full draft season mode. It's watching tape season, and while I think the Bears will draft Caleb Williams, I'm not limiting the film study to just Williams. So, here we go with another series here at BN, The Drake Maye Tapes.

As I've been doing with the Williams tapes, I will watch Drake Maye games, and I'll share my observations here to help us understand what the North Carolina quarterback brings to the table whether it be good, bad, or indifferent.

Here's how this will work: 

• I will share the pertinent highlights of my game notes with expanded commentary on the plays that matter.

• I will share several clips that I think are important, whether they are good, bad, or indifferent.

• I can not share every play, even though I would like to. Sharing 45-50 embedded videos would slow the responsiveness of the story down to the point where it would be unbearable to try and consume.

• The marks: A double-plus indicates a special throw or play by the quarterback, including drops or mistakes by the wide receiver or other results out of the control of the quarterback. A single plus will generally denote a positive play, good decision, or good throw by the quarterback. No mark indicates a wash or neutral result, often times being a play that's not fairly reflective of the quarterback's performance one way or another. A single minus reflects a poor decision, poor play, or poor throw by the quarterback. Remember, context is important, so pay attention to the notes. A double minus is a horrible throw or decision that resulted in a turnover that was the quarterback's fault, or a turnover worthy play that was the quarterback's fault.

• This isn't meant to "grade" Maye, but rather to provide some clarity and information. There is much discussion about Williams' success, or lack of it, against ranked opponents this season. Let's treat this as a fact-finding project. You can examine the findings and form your own interpretation.

Let's get into it.

The Drake Maye Tapes: N.C. State (2023)

So, here we go, we're getting into Drake Maye. I was originally going to do Williams first and then Maye, but I'm a glutton for punishment. Like with Williams, I'm working my way backward through his 2023 schedule, and I'll choose games as I wish. Today we're looking at Maye's performance against N.C. State to close the regular season for North Carolina.

Off the top of my head, I'm thinking Clemson, Duke (2 OT), and Miami are on deck for Maye after this in this series.

Drake Maye struggled to find his rhythm in the opening quarter, failing to complete any of his three pass attempts. Although he showed some improvement in the second half, he only mustered 254 passing yards, marking his fourth-lowest performance of the season. This contributed to the team's fourth loss of the season in Maye's farewell game as a Tar Heel.

I gave Maye a plus on the Tar Heels second offensive play for a good turn down decision, and he didn't get another positive mark until North Carolina's fourth possession of the game in the second quarter. It was an ugly, disjointed start for Maye and the North Carolina offense as a unit. I didn't like the play-calling. It didn't benefit Maye and UNC had bad results on their first five possessions, either punting or turning the ball over, including a fumble by Drake Maye on the second possession.

Our first clip is a 3rd & 9 play where I'm not really sure what Drake Maye is doing with this throw. He's got two wide receivers up top. The No. 1 at the very top is running a go route and the No. 2 in the slot is running an out route to the sideline.

From the sideline view of the All-22 it looks like Maye just sails it over the No. 2's head to the sideline. The end zone angle makes it look more like he's trying to hit him, but just misses him high and wide, something that I would end up seeing a bunch of in the game.

To be clear, the No. 1 at the top was not open despite throwing his hands up as if he was, he doesn't see the safety floating down on top of him. Maye decided to take the out route underneath, but it's just not a very good throw.

This was a theme in this game for Maye, even when he started to pick it up toward half-time.

Here's a similar miss on the ensuing possession:

This isn't an easy throw by any stretch of the imagination, but it's a throw he should make. It's a great concept, one of the few play calls by UNC in this game that I really like. It's a designed boot to Maye's left, shifting the launch point and allowing the deep crosser to get on the other side of the hash marks. Everything is there but the throw, which Maye comes up short on.

The Drake Maye Tapes is an NFL Draft series on the Bleacher Nation website. As a subscriber to this newsletter, you have early access to this story.