Former ESPN analyst and NFL running back Merril Hoge made some headlines earlier this month when he referred to quarterback Drake Maye, a like top-five pick Thursday night, as “the kind of player that will get you fired.”
The Patriots, sitting at No. 3, are maybe the team that has been linked to Maye the most, so Gresh & Fauria talked to Hoge on Wednesday about why he’s so down on Maye, what he would do with the third pick instead, and which other quarterback he’d be willing to take a chance on. Listen to the full interview above.
“[Maye’s inconsistency] doesn't change. It doesn't change, and he's the same guy for two years,” Hoge said. “And he's marginal at best when he has a good day, like Pitt. He played Pitt, and that would be one of the best games that I can say I've seen him play in his two years that I studied. And that wouldn't be a game that you went, ‘Wow, that guy is a difference-maker. Now that guy is a top three pick.’ That inconsistency alone, that inconsistency in throwing the football and processing, and that's just some of the problems.
“There's a whole litany of things that you have to correct and work on. And there'll be a lot of people, ‘Oh, you can teach that. You can fix that. You can work on that.’ Well, you can teach and fix anything you want, but can it ultimately be learned and applied? And there are some things you can't change, and there's some things you cannot fix, and accuracy is one of those things. You can dial it in a little bit, but if you're not an accurate passer and you're an inconsistent passer, that is going to be magnified in the National Football League.”
Hoge isn’t especially high on any of the quarterbacks at the top of this year’s draft. If the Patriots stick at three, he said he would target a different position, most likely wide receiver. Hoge named both Marvin Harrison Jr. and Malik Nabers as players he’d be OK with taking in the top five.
And if the Patriots really want to come out of the draft with a quarterback, Hoge suggested Spencer Rattler as someone worth targeting in the second or third round, where, in his mind, there wouldn’t be as much risk as taking Maye at three.
“I'm telling you, there's a kid who has a really good skill set,” Hoge said of Rattler. “He’s really trying to do the right things, you can tell. He just didn't have an extremely good team around him [at South Carolina]. A lot of his mistakes came really at the end of games when you just have to make decisions and force the ball and take shots you normally wouldn't.
“But there was a maturity to him, and I think there's something there. If you got him – not in the first round, I'm not talking about the first – but if you pick him up later, say in the second round or third round? … Get somebody that I have a chance to develop and has a better skill set and less to work on than Drake Maye, and that would be Rattler. I would take a swing at him.”