The Quarterback Tapes: Drake Maye vs. Clemson (2023)

A quick note about the series: Initially, the plan was to focus on Caleb Williams. And then it became Caleb Williams and Drake Maye. After that, it then became Williams, Maye, and Jayden Daniels. With how this has evolved, I’m retitling it to “The Quarterback Tapes.” Nothing else changes.

Today I’ll be sharing my breakdown of Drake Maye’s performance against Clemson during the 2023 season.

The Quarterback Tapes

Caleb Williams vs. Oregon

Caleb Williams vs. Washington

Here’s how this will work:

I will share the pertinent highlights of my game notes with expanded commentary on the plays that matter.

I will share several clips that I think are important, whether they are good, bad, or indifferent.

I can not share every play, even though I would like to. Sharing 45-50 embedded videos would slow the responsiveness of the story down to the point where it would be unbearable to try and consume.

The marks: A double-plus indicates a special throw or play by the quarterback, including drops or mistakes by the wide receiver or other results out of the control of the quarterback. A single plus will generally denote a positive play, good decision, or good throw by the quarterback. No mark indicates a wash or neutral result, often times being a play that’s not fairly reflective of the quarterback’s performance one way or another. A single minus reflects a poor decision, poor play, or poor throw by the quarterback. Remember, context is important, so pay attention to the notes. A double minus is a horrible throw or decision that resulted in a turnover that was the quarterback’s fault, or a turnover worthy play that was the quarterback’s fault.

This isn’t meant to “grade” Maye, but rather to provide some clarity and information. There is much discussion about Williams’ success, or lack of it, against ranked opponents this season. Let’s treat this as a fact-finding project. You can examine the findings and form your own interpretation.

Let’s get into it.

The Quarterback Tapes: Drake Maye vs. Clemson (2023)

Drake Maye had a tough day, statistically, against the Clemson defense in this one🅘. Maye was 16 of 36 for 209 passing yards, one touchdown, and one interception. He had 67 yards on the ground with a long of 30 on the day .

Clemson had the 32nd- scoring defense in college football last season. It showed against the Tar Heels in this one as they stymied North Carolina’s passing attack most of the game and Maye had his worst statistical game of the season.

That didn’t stop Maye from making some impressive throws, like this long connection with Tez Walker that set the Tar Heels up with a 1st & Goal inside the five-yard line early against Clemson:

This is an early 4th-and-6 for the Tar Heels an♉d Maye makes a gorgeous throw on a deep go route by W𒆙alker at the top of the screen along the boundary. That was as perfect of a toss as you could have asked for. A big-time throw, the first Sunday throw of the game for Clemson, and North Carolina was cooking early.

Two drives later, we’ve got Maye’s second double-plus throw of the game, a deep touchdown pass to J.J. Jones.

Again, this is cash money. A perfect throw, this time he’s moving to his right as he senses the free rusher to his left. Weird design, where North Carolina has the tight end chip the rusher on that side and then leak out to become the check down. If Maye doesn’t see the free rusher, he’s getting sacked.

The Tar Heels have two reads here for Maye. One is a deep over by the wide receiver up top over the middle and the other is a deep post route from the slot on the left side by J.J. Jones. Jones has space and ꦆwhile under pressure from his backside, Maye throws this one with good anticipation, getting into the throw while Jones is still at about the 17-yard line.

Maye drops it into the bucket for an easy touchdown on a very difficult, and very impressive throw. That’s two double-plus throws for Maye in the first quarter against Clemson.

Here’s another excellent throw by Maye in this one:

We have North Carolina with two wide receivers to the right at the bottom of the screen. The slot wide receiver is running a go with an outside release on the cornerback and Maye dots him up with a beautiful toss that he can’t hold onto at the end of the play.

Similar to the N.C. State game, there were plenty of big-t🎃ime throws on display fo🦩r Maye. The problem is, like that N.C. State game, Maye lacked consistency. For every plus throw, there was a spray miss somewhere.

In the above clip, Maye does a good job of getting his hips around after the play action, and the throw has effortless juice on it. He has elite arm strength, sometimes too much, though. He overthrows his receiver high and out front, something I’ve seen a bunch of times in the games of his that I’ve watched.

Here’s another one where his ball placement leads to an incompletion. Maye leaves the ball behind the wide receiver on the deep out to the sideline and gives the cornerback access to the ball to make the pass break-up. On this throw Maye should miss to the sideline, if he’s going to miss, which is ironic because that’s where the majority of his misses are at.

Here we have a sack. I didn’t place a minus mark on any of the sacks in this game except this one. This one is on Maye. He’s got time, and he’s got an open look on the No. 1 receiver up top running the deep post to the Clemson logo in the middle of the field. He’s got to make that throw in the NFL.

Maye was sacked four times in this game. I believe three of the sacks were the offensive line’s fault, but one sack was not (the one above). However, Maye could have been sacked another four times in this game if not for his feet.

I understand why he wanted to take off a bunch in this game. And some of them (below) were good decisions that resulted in chunk plays and first downs🅠.

That was an excellent decision to take off and make something happen with his legs. But there were some times in this game where I feel like he should have made a throw, but took off early. He also doesn’t scramble with his eyes up the field, so when he takes off, he’s gone, and it’s going to be a run.

Maye made some nice plays in this game, but he unraveled down the stretch racking up three turnover-worthy plays in the final 7:03. We start with a 2-point conversion attempt. The quarterback misses an open receiveꦫr who is running toward the pylon. Instead, he throws the ball into a crowded areaౠ and it almost gets intercepted.

The flat to the pylon is open, gotta pཧull the trigger on that ball.

Next, we have a throw that Maye was lucky that it wasn’t intercepted. He’s locked onto his read and doesn’t even see the linebacker right in front of him who leaps and makes a play on the ball. Again, Maye is lucky this one didn’t get intercepted.

On the next drive, karma makes things right and Maye throws a game-sea𝓀ling interception:

In fairness, the wide receiver slows up on his route and does Maye no favors here. But this one goes as an interception, and as I said, he got lucky that he didn’t throw one on the previous drive. Not so much here.

After watching two games of Drake Maye’s 2023 tape, my opinion hasn’t changed since watching the N.C. State game. Maye has highlight reel plays and Sunday throws, but he struggles with consistency, footwork, and ball placement. He struggles with ball placement and largely tends to come in the intermediate to deep levels of the field.

While Maye does throw a good deep ball (when he throws a good deep ball) it’s just not there enough for me. Too many spray misses, and too many short skips at that level of the field. Maye feasts when it comes to the short to medium throws, timing routes, and things over the middle. A large number of Maye’s completions live in that area, which is fine if you’re also hitting your shots downfield at a consistent clip.

His issue with the deep accuracy stems from his footwork and his hesitance to take the shot. He’s got slow and clunky footwork, lots of clicking, and drifting, and he looks hesitant to take those shots after a few misses, leaving him taking the underneath stuff (with success), and in turn leaving points on the field.

Final Thoughts

Beautiful deep ball when he’s throwing with confidence, especially early in the game.

Gets hesitant to take shots when he strings misses together.

Runs very well, but has a quick internal clock, especially when he’s in his head after mistakes. I would like to see him reset mentally and take some more shots rather than tucking and running when things get crowded.

Has to have better ball placement. Lots of misses ahead of his receiver with a few sails and skips at receivers feet.

I can’t stress this enough: when he’s feeling himself, his deep ball is damn good. It just doesn’t happen often enough.