Article REVEALS Drake Maye’s SURPRISING Ceiling/Floor Projection

Article REVEALS Drake Maye’s SURPRISING Ceiling/Floor Projection

an interesting some would say ominous article about Drake May that’s where we start on this episode of Locked On Patriots you are Locked On Patriots your daily New England Patriots podcast part of the Locked On podcast network your team every day
what’s up Patriots fans i am your host Nick Catles born and raised in New England your New England Patriots expert host of the Everything Pats podcast co-host of the Greg Baddard Patriots podcast with Nick Catles and also a sports talk show host veteran on today’s episode a 53man roster projection that has me in deep thought and a common theme about 2024’s draft class is revealing itself but first a floor ceiling suggestion that might make your head spin we appreciate you joining the show making us your first listen and for being an everydayer the Lockdown Patriots podcast a proud part of the Lockdown Podcast Network your team every day and a reminder we’re doing three shows a week Monday Wednesday and Friday until Monday July 14th when we go back to a daily show Monday through Friday i have high hopes for Drake May’s second NFL season i do believe he will be better this year than he was in 2024 but a Pro Football Focus article came out over the past few days and it stopped me dead in my tracks now this Pro Football Focus article uh took a look at all these secondyear quarterbacks in the NFL looking at the top six guys of course you know the names Caleb Williams Jaden Daniels Drake May and so on and this article was written by John Costco and here’s what he wrote in part the Patriots unfortunately put one of the worst supporting casts around May so his projections moving forward really shouldn’t change based on his performance in 2024 i agree with that i think most of you would agree with that it was so bad last year the offensive line was so bad the lack of weapons was so bad that it is truly difficult to gauge what Drake May is going to be in 2025 2026 and beyond from what happened in 2024 but then Pro Football Focus John Costco I will call him Mr costco gave us his ceiling and his floor for Drake May the ceiling was Trevor Lawrence the floor was Daniel Jones now let me start with the Lawrence ceiling if you look at Trevor Lawrence you could say there are some similarities to Lawrence and Drake May you look at the arm both guys have very good arm strength considered one of the best arms in college football when they were playing back in college you could look at their athleticism the athleticism of Trevor Lawrence the athleticism of Drake May you might even say that Trevor Lawrence is a bit more athletic than May is i don’t even know if that’s debatable maybe it is maybe it isn’t then you look at the size trevor Lawrence is 6’6 drake May is about 6’4 both dudes around 220 lbs so the arm the legs the frame the size pretty similar to each other which begs the question how does pro football focus look at Trevor Lawrence because a lot of people are split on Lawrence he’s a pretty polarizing quarterback some people believe that he’s still going to be a very good QB some people believe that he was overrated coming out of Clemson and the class when you look back at 2021 as we know M jones was a part of that quarterback class everybody else makes Lawrence look terrific in comparison but when you look at PFF and how they feel about Lawrence heading into 2025 they have Lawrence ranked as the 16th quarterback in the league so smack dab in the middle 32 starting quarterbacks day one of the season 16th is Lawrence and here’s what they wrote the talent is undeniable but he’s yet to show the consistent highlevel play needed to elevate himself and the Jaguars into the NFL’s elite now it’s it’s tough to project Lawrence heading into 2025 because he only started 10 games last year due to injury but if you have Lawrence at 16 where do you think Drake May is i’ll tell you pf has Drake May ranked 22nd heading into 2025 here’s what they wrote with Vrabel taking over as head coach and upgrades around him the number three overall pick from 24 is positioned to take a step forward in year two i expect it you expect it one part of Drake May’s game that we still haven’t seen taken advantage of and I think we’ll see it with Josh McDaniels is designed runs the run impact from your quarterback lawrence has had some of that in Jacksonville i believe May will have some of that this year but what is Trevor Lawrence’s ceiling because that’s what we need to know we know how Pro Football Focus feels about him going into 2025 but how does PFF feel about Lawrence and what could his ceiling be and what has Lawrence’s ceiling shown itself to be so far through his NFL career well if you look at the best PFF grade that he ever got overall it was back in 2023 he had a 79.7 overall grade that was a careerhigh brock Pury was the 10th highest graded quarterback last year with an overall grade of an 82.4 so if Lawrence’s ceiling is top 10ish or being a top 10 quarterback then May’s ceiling being a top 10 quarterback I don’t believe is too far off now maybe you have different gradations maybe you feel like May would be seventh sixth eighth ninth 10th but if Lawrence is seen as a guy who has the opportunity the potential the chance to be a top 10 quarterback then in essence what Mr costco is telling us with this ceiling for Drake May is that he could be a top 10 quarterback right in that region so I I don’t think that’s a huge slight to May however the Daniel Jones floor thing drives me nuts daniel Jones i I know that there were some comparisons to Jones with May when May was coming out i think there are a few reasons why that is that doesn’t have much to do with actually how they play football but I digress when you look at Jones the first thing about Daniel Jones that holds him back as an NFL quarterback and maybe he’ll be much better this year in Indianapolis if he wins the job from Anthony Richardson but the key to Jones being limited is his arm strength he does not have a very strong arm may has a strong arm and that’s such a huge difference between those two talents if somebody has a very good arm and somebody has a manageable arm the very good arm is much more likely to succeed and then I look at May’s intangibles and I wonder if Jones has the level of compete that May has we know that May is a feisty competitor he will fight fight fight i haven’t seen that from Jones may comes across as an alpha somebody who will control the room somebody who knows how to talk to the room somebody who his teammates will follow him jones really hasn’t given that alpha aura off since he was drafted by the New York Giants and then you have Jones who literally becomes a puddle against pressure and we saw May in his rookie season face as much pressure as anybody has faced maybe you got to go back to the David Carr days in Houston but May handled that pressure pretty pretty well so I just feel like May’s makeup is much better than Jones and I think his natural talent because of the arm strength is better than Jones’s and when you look at Daniel Jones’s stats his most productive season was his rookie season when he threw 24 touchdowns his best passer rating was a 92.5 in 2022 may’s passer rating last year was 88.1 which would have been Jones’s second best passer rating of his NFL career when you look at QBR Jones’s best QBR was a 62.9 again in 2022 drake May’s QBR last year was 58.6 which would have been Jones’s second best QBR of his NFL career and Daniel Jones during that 2022 season had Brian Debb and Saquon Barkley in the backfield we all know what May had and didn’t have last year beginning with Alex Vanpelt so you’re telling me that’s the floor of Drake May i just think that floor is too low but year three is going to be the ultimate tell it is going to be the ultimate tell of how far along May can get because just like Josh Allen year two was a little bit of a bump and then year three was the gigantic step forward the gigantic leap and year three will be the ultimate tell of ceiling versus floor for May i’m not looking at 2025 as an either or of those i’m just not looking at it and saying to myself well this is the best this is the ceiling that May can hit and I’m also not looking at it and saying “Oh well that’s just the floor.” We we’ll see what happens i would hope that Drake May’s floor was last season given what he had to deal with and and I feel like it probably is going to be that but maybe I’m wrong i don’t think I am but maybe I’m wrong but next year is going to be the big year the second year with the offensive coordinator i think an even better offensive line hopefully they find a true alpha wide receiver may has fully adjusted to the NFL after they adjusted to what he does well but Daniel Jones has the floor give me a break i could see the Trevor Lawrence stuff all right a local scribe has his 53man projection and I have three important observations from that projections coming up next as we continue with today’s episode of Lockdown Patriots part of the Lockdown Podcast Network your team every day [Music] ever wish managing your money felt easier with Monarch Money it can whether you’re growing your savings or planning a big purchase Monarch puts you in the driver’s seat it’s like having your own personal CFO giving you full visibility and control over your finances monarch Money is more than a budgeting app folk it It’s a complete financial command center you can track all your accounts investments and spending in one place so in addition to managing your money you’re also building wealth i mean when you look at it how has everything in one app made it easier to manage your money if you had that going on dayto-day could you just imagine one single app not boopping around through a bunch of others making your head dizzy giving you the cold sweats when you got one financial goal that you want to get serious about Monarch Money can help you out with that as well take control of your finances with Monarch Money use code lockdown NFL at monarchmoney.com for 50% off your first year that’s monarchmoney.com code lockdown NFL for half off your first year [Music] there are going to be some competitions during this training camp and we are officially about 3 weeks away from training camp beginning but I don’t believe there’s as much for grabs that’s going to be up during this training camp for the 53man roster and the reason why is there’s been so much turnover to this roster already that you have just a number of guys that are on this 53 or going to be you know 90 man when you first walk in so many guys that this regime has brought in terrell Williams Vrabel Josh McDaniels so many connections to this coaching staff and I think you have to you have to give the advantage as we get ready for camp to those guys who have been brought in this off season because this coaching staff this front office led by Mike Vrabel and Ryan Cen now along with Elliot Wolf they had a clear idea as to where they wanted to go when it comes to talent and when it comes to a guy’s comportment his attitude his personality away from the field so you’ve got a bunch of this regime’s guys that are going to be walking into Patriots camp for the very first time and I give them the leg up given the circumstances but Doug Kai came out with his pre-training camp 53man roster and I have three observations about the 53 from Kai his wide receiver room is as follows kendrick Bourne Kahan Booty Pop Douglas Stefan Diggs M collins Fton Chisum Kyle Williams now many of you are going to be very happy just with the fact that Eff Chisum has made his 53man roster but to me the wide receiver room when you just look at those seven names that Kai puts on his 53 man the wide receiver room is bananas seven guys do you think the Patriots will carry seven receivers i I find it very difficult to believe that this football team will have seven receivers on the 53 in week one that’s too much of a luxury for me to have a seventh receiver carrying six some would even argue is a bit heavy carrying seven I don’t think you need seven wide receivers on this 53 i do think putting a seventh is a luxury throughout the last few months I’ve been talking about how I would kind of situate things position by position numberswise not even just talking names but just looking at the numbers and I I feel much better about having six wide receivers than seven i would like to devote that seventh wide receiver spot to another position on the roster which I will get to in a couple of minutes seven receivers too much of a luxury it’s interesting that Kite again has Eff Chisum in if Effton Chisum is in then there’s going to be at least two guys out three guys out that you might not have thought would be out when last season ended maybe some of you did think that Jaylen Poke would be out no matter what i’m still giving him a chance it’s an outside chance but I’m still giving Jaylen Poke a chance but if Chisum is in that makes makes it much more difficult for Poke to get in jayvon Baker he’s behind Jaylen Poke and Poke’s been injured he coming off a surgery for his shoulder and Baker can’t even get on the field with Drake May so seven receivers on the 53 and with seven guys with seven guys in that room doug Kide still doesn’t have Poke and Baker in there instead he’s got if you really look at it Chisum and Booty so Chisum and Booty make it over Poke and Baker interesting stuff let’s look at the offensive line doug Kai here’s how he breaks it down jared Wilson Garrett Bradberry at center your offensive tackles Will Campbell Marcus Bryant Morgan Moses Kaden Wallace your guards City So Cole Strange and Micah Wenu now I want to make this note i believe this Doug Kide 53man roster projection came out before the Patriots signed Yair Durant i don’t know if that would make a big difference probably not but I’m not going to speak for Kite maybe it would have made a big difference not sure nine offensive linemen feels light just like seven wide receivers feels a little bit heavy and it’s interesting that you have nine offensive linemen neither Robinson makes it so Tyrese Robinson not on this roster leaden Robinson not on this roster now Leighton Robinson’s having issues we’ll get to him a little bit later in this podcast so I don’t think it’s a reach to say Leen Robinson could be in trouble tyrese Robinson I do think has a chance to make this roster the last time we saw him before his you know unfortunate passing of his sister which kept him from mandatory mini camp Tyrese Robinson was getting some looks at left guard he was getting reps so it’s interesting that neither Robinson is on K’s 53 how about Ben Brown now Garrett Bradberry to me is a question mark i’ve said that from the beginning his pass protection issues are real issues and it’s going to be a problem if if he proves to not be better in that category so do you feel do you feel good enough to not have a Ben Brown on the roster and I’m not telling you that Brown is great i’m just saying Jared Wilson missed OTAAS missed mandatory mini camp hopefully he’s out there during training camp but he’s obviously dealing with an injury and so I haven’t seen much of anything from Wilson just yet he’s going to make the roster but do you feel confident in his ability to help you day one we have to see but this is a pre-training camp 53man roster so yes Wilson will be on it but do you need some insurance at center given Wilson’s injury situation and the stuff that I just mentioned with Bradberry so it’s somewhat intriguing that Ben Brown is not on this 53 then when you look at it you have one backup guard i don’t think that’s going to happen maybe it will i don’t think it’s going to happen doug Kite has City so Cole Strange and Mike Awenu so right now you’d say Strange would be your starting left guard obviously Awenu is your starting right guard which leaves so as your only backup so you have one backup at center one backup at guard you’ve got two backup interior offensive linemen with a number of injury and performance questions on the interior offensive line i would add at least one guard to that mix i would I would probably take a guard over the Ben Brown sensor thing because I believe you can go out and get somebody like Ben Brown like they did last year but I would put one more offensive lineman i would take one receiver away so I’d have six receivers i’d have six receivers and 10 offensive linemen i don’t like seven and nine all right lastly let’s take a look at safety doug Kide his pre-training camp 53 he has Duggar Peppers Hawkins Woodson Pettis Skooler so he’s got six safeties six safeties on the week one roster he has Hawkins over Marcus EPS now Hawkins that’d be interesting because he’s more of an in the box option at safety and you feel like you’ve got Duggar you’ve got Peppers both those guys can play in the box but maybe you keep Hawkins as that security if one of those two guys gets hurt hawkins also plays a role on special teams much like Skooler i mean Skooler will be lit he he he’ll be listed as a safety but it’s really just a a flex because Skooler in case of an emergency you got to break the glass you can throw him back there and we saw him play some snaps last year very limited role but he played some snaps last year at safety so that’s you know in case of an emergency type option schoolers on the team obviously because he’s excellent at what he does on special teams so you really got five guys if you’re not going to play a schooler on the defense uh but Hawkins is the interesting one to me because you know EPS does he fit coming off ACL reportedly didn’t have the strongest OTAA/Mandatorium mini camp so we’ll see if he gets better as he gets into training camp hawkins wasn’t necessarily good last year i mean he was he was there he he was assignment sure at times but I wouldn’t say that Hawkins jumped out to any of us so I do think it’s interesting uh I could see Hawkins beat EPS given what EPS hasn’t or has done in OTAA’s mandatory mini camp and I’m just looking at Craig Woodson i think it’s a legitimate option for Woodson to start on this team this year or at least play a major role as that third safety coming off so we’ll see the 2024 draft class aside from Drake may all seem to have the same flaw it’s coming up next as we continue with today’s episode of Lockdown Patriots part of the Lockdown Podcast Network your team every day [Music] the NFL draft is an inexact science you have to do the work but even if you do the work it’s no guarantee that you’re going to pick the right guy we see it all the time and it’s not just because of on the- field issues it’s also because of off the- field issues what has a guy done or not done personally that that could bother you is that guy a leader is he seen as somebody who takes his role seriously within the football team on the field what kind of flaws does he have and and I really want to focus on the off the- field makeup stuff when it comes to the 2024 draft class because I read a note from Greg Baddard and this is something that’s been kind of brewing in my head for a while looking at the class from last year something’s going on right something’s going on aside from Drake May there’s just so many question marks about that class from a year ago and Baddard at BSJ recently wrote about Kadum Wallace multiple league sources say he has all the physical tools to play offensive tackle even left tackle but something is missing like a lot of the 2024 draft class but something is missing jaylen Pulk was seen as a very mature leader of a team type guy and when he got here he wasn’t as advertised his comportment on the sidelines his comportment on the field at times going to social media some of the stuff he said to the media themselves he was supposed to have borderline perfect makeup but quickly we saw some of these things pop up something was missing jayvon Baker I think came almost totally as advertised talented but the will he ever quote unquote get it reputation because something with Baker is missing something in the makeup leen Robinson mentioned him a little bit earlier and many people have written about Robinson over the past few weeks he’s tumbling down the depth chart suffers from a lack of focus pre-nap penalties during OTAAS and mandatory mini camp doesn’t quite understand his responsibilities on the field seems like there’s something missing maybe doesn’t have the work ethic that you would hope for then you had Joe Milton who you traded because you were concerned how he was going to impact the makeup of your quarterback room you felt like for him to be the backup of of Drake May he wouldn’t be able to handle that he wouldn’t maturely handle the situation again something was missing poke Baker Robinson Milton and I look at that draft class aside from May that’s full of questions and I truly wonder why there are so many questions about these players and why seemingly the Patriots swung and missed on almost all of them and didn’t truly understand what made them tick or maybe they just felt like they knew what made them tick and they took some wild swings and hoped for the best crossing their fingers is it because Elliot Wolf’s involvement was so indepth with Gerard Mayo trying to put together his coaching staff that that actually took time away from Wol and Wol had less time to vet some of these prospects himself did Wolf have less time to vet these prospects through his staff in the front office had less time talking about these guys had less time digging into the details i know reportedly that Wolf he almost had to hold Gerard Mayo’s hand through the staffing process because Mayo just did not have enough connections throughout the NFL that no doubt took some time away from Wolfe in the job that he was supposed to do and did that mean that the Patriots overall because the guy who was running the front office wasn’t around as much as he should have been does that mean that the front office gathered less intelligence about these players less info less leg work less background on some of them maybe they feel like they were hoodwinkedked because the people they spoke with maybe didn’t tell them the whole story was this an operational mess i feel like it’s easy to say yes but why well you got to look at how this was put together a year ago and the fact that your front office was in between grading systems you had the Bellich grading system then you had Elliot Wol’s Packers grading system the Packers grading system is what was used this time around last year they did not have enough time because they were kneede in trying to figure out all these prospects they could not turn over the grading system and begin from you know scratch in February it’s impossible so that grading system from the Packers days it didn’t hit until this last draft so you’re in between grading systems which which kind of gives you a gray area you’re kind of juggling around guys and saying “Okay well what would we grade him here and what would we grade him there?” And “Well that was what the Bellich grading system would tell us but do we really feel great about that guy?” I’m sure there was a certain amount of unknown about how they truly wanted to handle each and every prospect when they were going through that grading system and then you look at the hierarchy of the front office namely Elliot Wolf trying to find his voice he brings in Alonzo Highmith alonzo Highmith had not worked with most of the front office last year he was brought in as Wolf’s guy so Elliot Wolf first time as a GM trying to figure out his ways holding the hand of his head coach and working with him to to try to fill the coaching staff missing some pivotal dates that Wol should have gone to cuz he was wrapped up in things he shouldn’t have been wrapped up in but had to be wrapped up in in between grading systems and then Alonzo Highmith comes on he’s working with a bunch of new people was last year’s draft more gut is that what happened it’s a very strange thing and it’s it’s especially strange when you compare last year’s class to this year’s class and yes I know Mike Vrabel and Ryan Cen came in and stretch came in but those guys came in in you know January and a lot of the work most of the work was already done which is why Wol was here and he was a pivotal part of the process because he had done all the work with his front office for the past year and Varel came in and said “Okay well this is what I’m looking for.” for and Wolfe took that information and they cultivated a list of guys that Varbel would would like and and who would fit Vrabel’s system and then they went from there but when you look at the makeup of these players in 2025 it’s fascinating because it it’s much different than than what we saw in 2024 there’s been lots of culture talk lots of leadership talk lots of maturity talk with this class and I it just leaves you to to wonder was it as simple as Elliot Wolf was slotted in in his position which is something that you hope was the case last year and he was fully comfortable and had his grading system and obviously Vrabel and Cen and Stretch helped out tremendously as well but maybe Elliot Wolf you know he was able to go back to his scouting days more than he was like the GM try last year and he was more comfortable kind of filling a lot of the same role that he had filled before last year and Vrabel was the guy who he knew was going to drop the hammer and really had the final say so maybe the strengths of Elliot Wolf is the scouting particular players and being able to put the work in and working on that side of it instead of you know trying to run the whole operation and delegate and and talk to everybody else in the front office and try to handle all of it it’s interesting because last draft it just feels like it couldn’t be any more different than this year’s draft all right that wraps up this edition of Lockdown Patriots reach out to me on Twitter at Nickc Radio don’t forget to throw a comment in the YouTube channel and uh don’t forget to hit that like button and subscribe as well thank you for making Lockdown Patriots your first listen today for your second listen check out Lockdown NFL Scouting it is tremendous you can find it on YouTube or wherever you listen to podcast have a great day we will see you on Wednesday

Drake Maye’s NFL potential ignites debate. Is he the next Trevor Lawrence or Daniel Jones? Nick Cattles dissects a Pro Football Focus analysis, arguing Maye’s ceiling surpasses expectations.

The New England Patriots’ 53-man roster projection takes center stage. Cattles challenges Doug Kyed’s predictions, questioning wide receiver depth and advocating for more offensive linemen. The 2024 draft class raises eyebrows, with concerns about player maturity and performance beyond May. Front office changes, including Eliot Wolf’s influence, may have impacted scouting processes.

Explore the Patriots’ evolving roster strategy and draft philosophy. How will recent organizational shifts shape the team’s future? Tune in for expert analysis on New England’s path forward in a competitive NFL landscape.

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