Drake MayeRich von Biberstein/Icon Sportswire via Getty ImagesTrey Lance didn't pan out for San Francisco and has been outperformed by the next quarterback drafted, Justin Fields. Bryce Young was also outplayed by second overall pick C.J. Stroud this past season.
When was the last time a team traded up for a signal-caller in a top-three spot and that quarterback panned out better than the next one selected? It certainly hasn't been either of those guys, or Mitchell Trubisky ahead of Patrick Mahomes in 2017. Both Jared Goff and Carson Wentz were picked in the top three by teams that traded up in 2016, and nobody decent was picked in the top rounds, but Dak Prescott was a fourth-round selection that year.
The point is that the draft continues to be a crapshoot, especially with first-round quarterbacks.
Considering what 2022 seventh-rounder Brock Purdy has done, an argument can be made that dating back to 2016, the only QBs that have gone off the board before anyone else at their position and actually become the best in their draft classes are Trevor Lawrence in 2021 and Kyler Murray in 2019. Maybe Joe Burrow ahead of Tua Tagovailoa in 2020, but that's a tough call either way right now.
Realistically, if Williams goes first and Drake Maye goes off the board soon after, there's a good chance that the North Carolina product becomes the Stroud to Williams' Young.
In fact, the latest big board from the Bleacher Report Scouting Department has Maye ranked above Williams.
"Maye is a supremely talented passer," B/R scout Derrik Klassen wrote. "He has the athleticism, arm talent and baseline processing skills to become a weapon at the next level."
Klassen also noted that Williams has room to improve in terms of both consistency and processing.
"Maye received rave reviews in a recent conversation with an NFC quarterbacks coach who has studied his film: 'He's Josh Allen, Justin Herbert ... and I think his arm is comparable to C.J. Stroud," Matt Miller of ESPN said this week. "Those comparisons are high praise and would be tough for new general manager Adam Peters to ignore. Maye's arm talent and mobility at 6-foot-4 and 230 pounds perfectly fit the modern quarterback profile."
This is far from a cut-and-dried choice.
ncG1vNJzZmianJqupLTEq6meqJ%2BnwW%2BvzqZmmqqknrCtsdJoaGlpYG2AcoGMa2drbF2js615w6uYn6xdrLW6ecKopKaZnpmys7%2BMrJ%2BorZyZu7V506uYnZ1dqr1uwM5mq5qjlWK%2Bo3nCmqOeml2stq24yJqkrA%3D%3D