Kurt Warner drops harsh Drake Maye take ahead of 2024 NFL Draft

As the 2024 NFL Draft approaches, Pro Days are happening around the country and NFL talent evaluators and analysts alike are getting their last real looks at the top prospects in the class.

At this point, it is time to look at the smallest details and let them separate prospects. While all NFL draft prospects have their own plusses and minuses, the knock on Drake Maye has been his fundamentals. And that’s what Kurt Warner is worried about.

“He misses too many, what I call, layups. When you get to the NFL you got to make the layups, you’ve got to make the layups 99% of the time,” Warner told Pat McAfee on The Pat McAfee Show on Friday afternoon. “By that I mean the reads you’re supposed to make that are easy reads on certain plays. The throws you’re supposed to make that are easy throws, and he misses too many of those. His feet get out of whack, he’ll bounce in the pocket, he’ll be off on his timing, and he just misses too many of those throws.”

Warner did concede that Maye also has talent and skill that other QBs don’t have, but that it’s the simple things that determine success in the pros.

“And then he makes the special throws 30 yards down the field, and that wows you,” Warner said. “But I think the one thing that I see every week watching tape in the NFL, is the guys that make the layups give their team a chance to win every time out.”

If Warner is right, it may knock Maye to as deep as 11th in the upcoming draft. But should it?

Who will be the No. 2 pick in the 2024 NFL Draft?

We all know that the Chicago Bears are taking Caleb Williams at No. 1 in the 2024 NFL Draft. That has been a fait accompli for weeks now. So, it’s now the Washington Commanders at No. 2 who hold the key to how the draft will unfold from there.

Washington has new ownership and a new coach, and now it needs the new QB prospect to complete the package. That’s why they will take a quarterback at No. 2, but the question is, which one?

Jayden Daniels won the Heisman and has the arm and leg talent to become a perfect modern NFL QB prospect. The flipside here is that he was a bit of a one-season wonder in his fifth college campaign in 2023 and he also refused to be weighed and measured during the draft process, calling his 6-foot-4, 210-pound program measurements into question.

JJ McCarthy has good size at 6-foot-2-plus and 219 pounds and a well-balanced range of arm talent, athleticism, and toughness. His problem is that it never seemed like Jim Harbaugh trusted him to go out and win a game for him at Michigan. In the biggest of big games, McCarthy threw the least, calling into question his mental makeup and decision-making for the next level.

Finally, there is Maye, who at 6-foot-2, 223 pounds looks like the All-American QB on the sideline. As Warner suggests, though, he may have gotten by on his size and skill to this point, which will no longer carry the day in the NFL.

At the end of the day, the Commanders have to decide what scares them the least. Is it the slight frame? The lack of experience? Or the poor fundamentals?

The safest pick is still probably Drake Maye, though. Daniels will never be a solid 220, and McCarthy could wilt with more on his shoulders. You can’t teach 6-foot-4, 220, but you can coach up fundamentals when you have such a solid base.