"Kevin, why are we even debating this?" Kevin Sheehan said reading from an email from Derek to start Friday's show. "Jayden Daniels is the most exciting quarterback in the daft. This is the classic no-brainer. He's the one that will keep men like Dan Quinn [as in NFL defensive coordinators] up at night. He's the pick" for the Washington Commanders at No. 2.
But then he read another note about the NFL Draft's top quarterbacks from a listener Eric: "Kevin, why do people think Jayden Daniels is so ready and Drake Maye isn't? If the reason is Daniels is ready to play now because of his mobility, why aren't people saying the same thing about Drake Maye?"
Sheehan says that he thinks that – while he isn't a big Maye guy, he isn't anti-Maye – and Eric makes a good point about the under-discussed aspect of Maye using his legs to extend plays and make plays.
"I'm with you, Eric," Sheehan continues. "If the reason that people think Jayden Daniels is ready to go Day 1 and Drake Maye isn't is because Jayden is this electrifying athlete, this incredible mobile, running, dual-threat quarterback that you can put on the field Day 1 even if he's not advanced or polished in some of the other areas of the game, you can still put him on the field and have success. I kinda feel the same way about Drake Maye.
"Look, I am Jayden Daniels over Drake Maye. I'm Jayden Daniels over JJ McCarthy every day of the week, twice on Sunday. But I think Drake Maye is an athlete. I think he's athletic, I think he's a playmaker.
"So it leads me to believe that the reason that we keep hearing that Drake Maye isn't ready or needs a year to sit, he's the one that needs time. I don't think it's about the athleticism. If it is, they're wrong. Watch Drake Maye's highlight reel, which gives you a lot of very good plays, but you will see many of those plays are about his ability to be mobile, to be athletic, to make plays off schedule both legs running and legs creating more time to throw. He's an ahtlete, he's a bigger stronger athlete than any of these guys."
But, Sheehan then quoted an anonymous personnel executive on Maye from a piece Ben Standig piece this week in The Athletic: "He scares the hell out of me. Longer thrower with a big arm but not quick release. Nothing feels like it happens in rhythm, and accuracy is average. Needs a year on the bench,"
Then a former GM told Standig: "He has accuracy you can’t teach and is only scratching the surface with his upside while he physically matures."
So what do you make of that?
For Sheehan, the people who believe Maye needs time to sit are the people who believe that the issues with his mechanics and footwork are at the root of any issue he has with throwing the ball and that fixing that during time getting used to the professional game, on the bench, will be beneficial to him in the long run, rather than throwing him into action on Day 1.
"It's a weird thing with Drake Maye," Sheehan said. "Drake Maye's the one out of all of these guys that I think that has been knocked around more than any other. I don't know if it's fair or not, there's so much that we don't know. My personal belief is the mystery around JJ McCarthy should be the biggest knock of the three that are in the running to be at No. 2. But Drake Maye is plenty mobile enough."