• Drake Maye was held back at North Carolina: Maye’s situation at UNC pales in comparison to the other top quarterback prospects in the 2024 draft.
• Tyrone Tracy Jr. was played out of position for five years: The New York Giant was a wide receiver for the first five years of his career before looking fantastic at running back this past season.
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Estimated Reading Time: 4 minutes
Separating players from their situation in college is an important part of the evaluation process in the NFL draft. Oftentimes, prospects have it much easier in college as they’re surrounded by elite talent and have the luxury of playing against significantly less talented opponents. On the flip side, some prospects were held back in college because of what surrounded them.
We’ll focus on the latter here and highlight five incoming rookies who may not have been able to fully showcase their talents due to external factors.
QB Drake Maye, New England Patriots
Maye was still incredibly productive during his time as North Carolina’s quarterback, posting 90.0-plus PFF grades in each of his two years as a starter. However, the Tar Heels didn’t necessarily surround him with the supporting cast that other top quarterback prospects were afforded (see Jayden Daniels, Michael Penix Jr., J.J. McCarthy and Bo Nix). North Carolina finished 54th in team pass-blocking grade (68.7) since 2022. This past season, the Tar Heels were 55th in team receiving grade (72.2).
QB Spencer Rattler, New Orleans Saints
Rattler also had to overcome some deficiencies with his supporting cast, specifically his porous offensive line. This past season, the Gamecocks allowed the fourth-highest pressure rate in the nation (36.9%) and were just 106th in team pass-blocking grade (56.6). South Carolina was also just 87th in team receiving grade. Xavier Legette was the only viable option most of the time.
RB Ray Davis, Buffalo Bills
Davis was able to post an elite 91.4 rushing grade despite not having much help around him. Kentucky finished the season tied for 96th in run-blocking grade (56.4). There wasn’t much of a passing game to help alleviate some of the pressure off of his shoulders, as the Wildcats were just 79th in expected points added per pass. It was even worse in 2022 when he was at Vanderbilt. That year, the Commodores were 119th in run-blocking grade and 98th in EPA per pass.
RB Tyrone Tracy Jr., New York Giants
Tracy’s situation at Purdue was similar to Davis’ at Kentucky. The Boilermakers finished 2023 tied for 94th in run-blocking grade and 90th in EPA per pass. He still was incredibly efficient though, forcing a missed tackle on 40% of his attempts, which was the third-highest rate in the nation.
Another reason Tracy was held back in college is that he played wide receiver for the first five seasons of his career before switching to running back this past season. If he played running back the entire time and was as efficient as he was in 2023, he’d likely be wrapping up his rookie contract by now.
DI Leonard Taylor III, New York Jets
The only undrafted player on this list, Taylor was a projected first-round pick entering 2023 before a down junior year at Miami (FL) caused him to fall out of the draft altogether. While he certainly wasn’t as dominant as his sophomore campaign (his grade dropped from 87.4 to 74.9), some of that could be attributed to playing out of position.
In 2022, he spent 84% of his snaps lined up in the A-Gap, where his explosiveness allowed him to shoot the gap and create havoc in the backfield. This past season, he spent 60% of his snaps lined up as a nose tackle, where he wasn’t able to outmuscle centers at just 303 pounds. The Jets would be wise to not make the same mistakes that the Hurricanes did and use him more as a three-tech or one-tech rusher.
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