10 best college football quarterbacks returning for 2023 season
By John Buhler
Drake Maye is on his way towards being a top-five pick in the 2024 NFL Draft
You can argue with a wall, but the favorite to win the Heisman Trophy next year has to be North Carolina quarterback Drake Maye. This is because Caleb Williams is not repeating because nobody besides Archie Griffin does that, not even Lamar Jackson. Regardless, Maye can really play. He carried an awful Tar Heels defense to the ACC Championship Game to lose to little ole Clemson.
No Mitch Trubisky comparison shenanigans will keep this North Carolina legacy down. Maye can turn pro after his redshirt sophomore season. Though he could potentially return to Chapel Hill for one more year, or two, after this, he is the other quarterback besides Williams who has a top-10 grade on him way ahead of the 2024 NFL Draft. So will he live up to this insurmountable pressure?
North Carolina is on a shortlist of about three teams who can realistically win the ACC. The Tar Heels trail Clemson and Florida State in that department, but Maye is the better quarterback over Jordan Travis and Cade Klubnik. Though both will certainly have a say in who wins the title bout in Charlotte, Maye is the likeliest player of the trio to have a seat at the Heisman Trophy ceremony.
Expectations are sky-high for Maye, but what we saw out of him last season is simply undeniable.