![\"Maye](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/10-new-england-patriots-throws-1007277762.jpg\")
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Maye was selected to the Pro Bowl in his rookie season with the PatriotsCredit: Getty<\/p>\n
Boasting an impressive college resume, he finished his UNC career having thrown for 63 touchdowns, 16 interceptions, and a total of 8,018 yards in 30 games.\u00a0<\/p>\n
With a 64.9 percent pass completion rate, Maye averaged 13.0 yards per catch and 267.3 yards of offense a game.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He was the recipient of the 2022 ACC Player of the year after a season in which he led the NCAA<\/a> in total offense with 5,019 yards.<\/p>\n He was drafted to the six-time Super Bowl<\/a> champions with the third overall pick in the 2024 NFL<\/a> Draft.\u00a0<\/p>\n But prior to the start of the 2023 NCAA season, there was a lot of speculation over whether Maye would enter the transfer portal and go to Pitt.<\/p>\n Such rumors were later quashed by Maye himself when he declared he would be staying at UNC via his social media.\u00a0<\/p>\n It had been reported by Pitt coach Pat Narduzzi that two schools had offered Maye $5 million to come and play for them.\u00a0 But Maye stated that these rumors were simply not true.\u00a0<\/p>\n “Those rumors weren’t really reality,” Maye told Pete Thamel of ESPN<\/a>. <\/p>\n \u201cPitt’s coach ended up putting that out there. I don’t know what that was about. You have to enter the transfer portal to talk to these schools and hear these offers.\u201d<\/p>\n Maye even went as far to criticise college football\u2019s handling of NIL. \u00a0<\/p>\n 7<\/p>\n Maye was a star quarterback for the UNC Tar HeelsCredit: Getty<\/p>\n \u201cFor me, I think college football<\/a> is going to turn into a mess. They’re going to have to do something.<\/p>\n There was nothing to me or my family directly offered from any of these other schools. Nothing was said or offered to the Mayes.”\u00a0<\/p>\n In a world of NIL (name, image, likeness) deals, Maye had agreed to one with UNC\u2019s Heels4Life program, and vehemently denied receiving any others at the time.\u00a0<\/p>\n Then in 2023, it was announced<\/a> that the Tar Heels star had also signed an NIL deal with Dwayne \u201cThe Rock\u201d Johnson\u2019s ZOA Energy brand, along with other NFL stars, including Marvin Harrison Jr., Brock Bowers, as well as WNBA<\/a> star, Angel Reese<\/a>. <\/p>\n He also signed lucrative deals with brands including Yoke Gaming, Bojangles\u2019 Famous Chicken\u2019 n Biscuits, and Jimmy\u2019s Famous Seafood.\u00a0<\/p>\n It has since been estimated that Maye\u2019s – who was a 4-star prospect entering college – brand power was worth $895k, and his NIL value was worth $298k, culminating in a total value of $1.2 million<\/a> annually.<\/p>\n 7<\/p>\n Maye was drafted with the third overall pick in the 2024 NFL DraftCredit: Getty 7<\/p>\n Maye is ready to be the Patriots’ franchise signal callerCredit: Getty<\/p>\n Maye\u2019s prediction of college football turning into a mess as a result was not far off what has transpired over the past season.<\/p>\n Tennessee\u2019s starting quarterback Nico Iamaleava ended up leaving the program in April amid a contract dispute<\/a> over his NIL deal. <\/p>\n It was reported that he wanted a pay increase of his package that was already worth more than $2 million annually.\u00a0<\/p>\n Having failed to show up for Vols practice, he was ultimately cut, entered the transfer portal, and has since moved to UCLA.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Iamaleava\u2019s former coach Josh Heupel attributed this breakdown between player and team to the \u2018state of college football.\u2019<\/p>\n “It’s the state of college football,” Heupel said on the Vol Network. “At the end of the day, no one is ever bigger than the program. That includes me too.”<\/p>\n 7<\/p>\n Iamaleava left Tennessee amid a NIL contract disputeCredit: Getty<\/p>\n Additionally potential Pittsburgh Steelers target<\/a> – LaNorris Sellers was reportedly offered an $8 million NIL deal from another school.\u00a0<\/p>\n The 19-year-old was named the starting quarterback for the South Carolina Gamecocks in 2024, and threw for 2,534 yards, 18 touchdowns and 7 interceptions.\u00a0<\/p>\n A dual-threat quarterback, also rushing for 674 yards on the ground, declined the offer to move.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI’ve been playing football all my life for free,” Sellers said via The Athletic.<\/a> “I’ve built my relationships here, my family’s here, my brother’s here. There’s no reason for me to go someplace else and start over.\u201d<\/p>\n Similarly, Sellers\u2019 father Norris offered insight into how the family came to a decision, ultimately opting to stay loyal to the Gamecocks with whom he has familiarity with.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cHe was offered all kinds of crazy numbers,” Norris said. “I told him he could say, I’m gonna stay or I’m gonna go.\u00a0<\/p>\n 7<\/p>\n Sellers revealed that he turned down a lucrative NIL offer to stay with the GamecocksCredit: Getty 7<\/p>\n Maye had a higher QBR than No. 1 overall pick Caleb Williams<\/p>\n \u201cBy my two cents: It was to get into college on a scholarship, play ball, get our degree and go on about our business. This NIL deal came later. We didn’t come here to make money.\u00a0<\/p>\n “We came here to get our education, play ball, and with schools calling, we’re not gonna jump ship because they’re offering more than what we’re getting. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.\u201d<\/p>\n As for Maye, the NFL season is fast approaching, and the Patriots star is hoping to take his learnings from his rookie year into the 2025 campaign.\u00a0<\/p>\n Taking over the starting job from Jacoby Brissett in Week 6, Maye made 12 starts – 13 appearances overall – and threw for 2,276 yards, 20 touchdowns, and 13 interceptions.\u00a0<\/p>\n With a QBR of 58.6, higher than the Chicago Bears<\/a> No. 1 overall pick Caleb Williams<\/a> (46.7) and Denver Broncos standout Bo Nix<\/a> (56.8), Maye was selected to the 2024 Pro Bowl to cap off an impressive individual showing of the year.\u00a0<\/p>\n Though the Patriots only won four games in 2024, due to their off-season acquisitions there is now a renewed enthusiasm that Maye and co will be far more competitive next season, with a goal of reaching the post-season.<\/p>\n Stay up to date with the latest from across the NFL via our\u00a0talkSPORT Facebook page<\/a>, and subscribe to our\u00a0Endzone YouTube channel<\/a>\u00a0for news, views and exclusive interviews as we build up to the NFL Draft.<\/p>\n It’ll be ugly Michael Irvin issues stern warning to Dallas Cowboys star Dak Prescott about losing his starting role to Joe Milton<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The New England Patriots are entering a new era with Drake Maye as their franchise quarterback going into…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":178862,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2050],"tags":[833,7,8352,12746,9734,838,7891,49,1167,249,2326,2094,6,39313,9609,39312,941,208,834,326,4278,1686,531,526,1541,11058,1375],"class_list":{"0":"post-178861","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-england-patriots","8":"tag-drake-maye","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-gamecocks","11":"tag-heisman","12":"tag-lanorris-sellers","13":"tag-mike-vrabel","14":"tag-milton-williams","15":"tag-ncaa","16":"tag-new-england","17":"tag-new-england-patriots","18":"tag-newengland","19":"tag-newenglandpatriots","20":"tag-nfl","21":"tag-nico-iameleava","22":"tag-nil","23":"tag-nil-athletes","24":"tag-north-carolina","25":"tag-patriots","26":"tag-patriots-news","27":"tag-sec","28":"tag-south-carolina-gamecocks","29":"tag-south-carolina","30":"tag-stefon-diggs","31":"tag-tennessee","32":"tag-tennessee-volunteers","33":"tag-unc","34":"tag-volunteers"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/114790713535764291","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178861","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=178861"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178861\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/178862"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=178861"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=178861"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=178861"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Maye](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/5314de63-4f30-47ae-bddb-f847d0c08451.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"Maye](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/10-new-england-patriots-looks-1007278026.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"Maye](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/new-england-patriots-quarterback-drake-910072022.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"Iamaleava](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/8-tennessee-volunteers-looks-throw-1007277927.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"Sellers](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/south-carolina-gamecocks-quarterback-lanorris-1007278078.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"Maye](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/dsc5904_dphh1dhi-JS948190282.jpg\")
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