When the New England Patriots selected Drake Maye with the No. 3 overall pick, most expected that he would compete for the starting quarterback job. But in a pretty horrible turn of events for him, it sounds like he is getting outperformed by another rookie quarterback who was drafted five rounds later.
According to a report from Ben Volin of the Boston Globe, former Tennessee Volunteers starting quarterback Joe Milton has looked noticeably better in practice that Drake Maye so far through training camp.
“I wrote after last Thursday’s practice that Milton is the ‘wow’ quarterback at camp — the guy with the best size, best athleticism, and biggest arm. Now I’ll take it a step further: Milton outplayed Maye over the first six practices of camp. You can’t tell which player is the No. 3 overall pick (Maye) and which is the sixth-round flier (Milton),” Volin wrote for the Boston Globe this week.
As Volin explained, while Maye has struggled while getting a lot of reps, Milton has shined despite few opportunities.
“Maye is running second on the depth chart and getting a ton of work, but he hasn’t made many noteworthy throws. He was the only quarterback not to throw a touchdown pass in a red zone drill Tuesday, while Milton, in limited reps, threw touchdowns on consecutive plays, one on a drag to Polk and another on an RPO slant to JuJu Smith-Schuster,” Volin wrote.
“In the red zone/two-minute situation, Maye had an ugly, off-platform throw that went way wide of Smith-Schuster, a hospital ball to tight end Mitchell Wilcox that got him sandwiched between two defenders, and an incomplete corner fade to Javon Baker in the end zone that had the entire offense doing pushups. Meanwhile, Milton wows the crowd every day with his tantalizing arm and standing backflips. After Maye struggled in the red zone, Milton promptly came in and completed a nice pass to Kawaan Baker on the sideline.”
Obviously, this is pretty terrible news for Maye, and it led to a lot of reactions on social media.
When I said Joe Milton was the Patriots future QB1 it was tongue in cheek, but now it looks like that might be happening. https://t.co/nkishJ106b
— Mike (@mikeyj2208) July 31, 2024
Maybe I'm wrong but it seems to happen a fair amount of times when a team has a high pick and low pick at qb that lower pick outshines the higher pick.
I did like Milton coming out. Dude has an arm out this world. https://t.co/3M0szxX5Gf
— Blue eyed devil⚜️🕊️⚜️ (@cammunchcar) July 31, 2024
I mean, I said it on draft night…don’t be surprised https://t.co/Ak3OhJhRnT
— Ant (@Anthonyn27) July 31, 2024
Are we surprised? https://t.co/e7Zpm7qiJA
— Matthew Peterson (@MatthewPetey) July 31, 2024
Milton is so underrated. Hope he gets his chance
— Derek (@Daniels2Terry) July 31, 2024
I’ve been saying Milton about to be that sleeper nobody saw coming
— The Trading Wiz (@TheWiz2025) July 31, 2024
We’ll certainly have to see how this situation plays out.
