I just don't buy that a guy in 2 years of starting that had 63 TD's and 16 INT's with a 65% completion percentage playing for a mediocre team and lesser talent had a bad college experience. Compare that to 4 year starter Daniels and his 89 TD and 20 INT with a 66% completion percentage, playing on a team with NFL players across the entire team his last 2 years. Daniels 5th year was amazing, but there was so much talent around him, he could easily be a product of the talent and bust out. Maye was a lot better at UNC than Daniels was at ASU. A LOT better.
Yeah, this is the hard part. The lesser competition goes along with Maye having lesser tools on his team to work with. He had no stud receivers. His OL was not that great. The entire focus of the other team defense was to stop Maye.
I accept that drafting a QB is a crap shoot. But Maye has shown he has the arm and the overall athletic ability be an NFL QB. It takes more than that though. The competition doesn't affect how much zip there is on the ball when he throws it. It doesn't affect his foot speed. To be an NFL QB, you have to be able to play the game at NFL speed mentally as well as physically. That is the part you don't know until you see the QB on the field with NFL players. I have no idea if Maye, or any of the other QBs, will be able to handle NFL speed of play. Even the scouts seem to have difficulty determining this.
I think the most likely outcome is we end up with Maye with the #3 pick. I will be perfectly happy with that. But it could also be something else. I would be happy with a trade down for a haul of pick and end up with McCarthy or Penix. I can't sit here today and be sure that Maye will be any better than McCarthy or Penix.